Hospital receives three-stars ranking


Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital scored a middle-of-the-road ranking in a national survey of hospitals released this month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Sentara Halifax Regional garnered three stars out of a possible five in its overall rating and in terms of customer satisfaction. In South Hill, VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital also achieved a three-star rating. Two nearby North Carolina hospitals, Maria Parham in Henderson and Granville Health Systems in Oxford, likewise earned three stars in the CMS study.

The “Hospital Compare” study was created by the federal agency to help patients make decisions about where to go for hospital care in non-emergency situations, and to encourage hospitals to improve the quality of services they provide.

While area hospitals generally landed in the middle of the pack, Danville Regional Medical System was tagged with a one-star rating.

The most common score is three stars, which 38.5 percent of U.S. hospitals reviewed by the CMS earned. One out of five hospitals nationwide received four stars, and one out of six earned two stars. At the extremes, only 2.2 percent of hospitals attained a five-star rank, and 2.9 percent received a one-star rating.

The rankings were derived from data reported to CMS by nearly 4,600 hospitals throughout the United States that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients. The study measures seven areas of quality: mortality rate, safety of care/complications and rate of infections from certain medical procedures, the rate of unplanned readmissions within 30-days of initial discharge, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, and efficient use of medical imaging.

A separate patient experience survey measures 11 additional areas of care or patient satisfaction: nurse communication, doctor communication, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information, care transition, cleanliness of hospital environment, quietness of hospital environment, general hospital rating (on a scale of 1-10), and willingness of patients to recommend the hospital.

Sentara Halifax Regional matched or exceeded the national average in every area except mortality rate. It was below the national average in that category.

The mortality rate measures the number of patients hospitalized for certain conditions who die soon after they are discharged. Hospitals below the national average, according to the study, experienced a higher number of deaths among patients within 30 days of discharge.

In a key measure of patient satisfaction, the hospital scored close to the state and national average: 69 percent of patients gave SHRM a score of 9 or better on a scale of 0-10, with zero indicating dissatisfaction and a 10 awarded for a most highly satisfying experience. The hospital’s score of 69 was comparable to the state average of 70 percent and national average of 72 percent.

The hospital’s rate of readmission after discharge was in line with the national average.

Of the four local hospitals, patients at Granville Health Systems were the most satisfied, according to the survey of patient experiences. Granville patients rated the hospital at or above the state and national averages in 10 categories: nurse and doctor communications, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information, care transition, quietness of hospital environment, general hospital rating, and willingness of patient to recommend hospital.

The only rating Granville received that fell slightly below the state or national average was for cleanliness of the hospital environment.

In the same survey, patients at VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill said their hospital experience was at or above the state and national average in only four areas: doctor communication, communication about medicines, care transition, and quietness of hospital environment. In six areas — nurse communication, pain management, responsiveness of hospital staff, discharge information, cleanliness of hospital environment, and willingness of patient to recommend hospital — VCU-CMH ranked below the state and national averages.

While the area around their rooms was quiet at night, VCU-CMH patients took issue with the cleanliness of their rooms and bathrooms. Only 64 percent said these areas were kept clean, compared to 72 percent in Virginia and 74 percent nationally.

At Sentara Halifax, 68 percent of patients reported that their rooms and bathrooms were always clean.

Full results for the Hospital Compare survey, searchable by zip code, are available online at the website for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare

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