Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayhawk
...the same people who bitch about the hospital bitch about pretty much everything.
...Miserable people are only happy when they are miserable.
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OK, but the comparative hospital ratings used in the Medicare search tool are used to compare hospitals all over the country. Those that we all know have a top reputation—Shands, Mayo and Baptist in Jacksonville, Sarasota Memorial, Moffitt—all have five-star ratings. Are a few anecdotal reports from local ER patients enough to discount the Medicare ratings which are based on a huge base of actual insurance claims?
I can add an anecdote. I had a popular local primary care physician who has admitting privileges at TVRH tell me, “If you wake up and find yourself in The Villages Hospital... call a taxi and get out of there.” Needless to say, he doesn’t recommend TVRH to his patients.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes and updates information on all hospitals which is used to develop ratings for use by the public to compare hospitals available to them. The Medicare ratings include actual evaluation of hospitals based on actual Medicare claims of the following factors:
—Patient Experience Measures are patients' opinions about the care they received.
—Process Measures give information about how many patients get the recommended care for their condition.
—Outcomes Measures show how well patients do after they receive treatment.
—Patient Safety Measures show how often patients suffer from hospital-acquired infections.
—Cost Measures are the cost of care for specific services.