Unfortunately the villages hospital
 

Unfortunately the villages hospital has returned to one star status in CMS (Medicare).
I was surprised and happy when TVH moved to 2 stars on the medicare.gov website but it fell back to 1 star.
Many people will say yes but TVH has more old people and snowbirds than other places.
To that I say look at other hospitals that have great ratings within 100 miles of TV. There are 5 star hospitals in Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne and Jacksonville 4 star hospitals in Tampa and Gainesville.
I don’t understand how Medicare rates hospitals but the closest 3 star hospitals are in Ocala and Tavares and I have taken myself and friends that needed care to both of them.

Very disappointing

I am very glad we have it here. How many lives have been saved. I was in there twice and treated very well. I am alive because they were there. I don't care how many stars they get.

Medicare rates hospitals based on a variety of measures across 5 areas of quality into a single star rating for each hospital. The 5 measure groups include: Mortality, Safety of care, Readmission, Patient experience, and Timely and effective care. The overall rating shows how well each hospital performed on an identified set of quality measures compared to other hospitals in the U.S.

It would make sense that The Villages Hospital would have a higher Mortality and readmission rate than a normal hospital due to the average age of their patients. Not sure what safety of care encompasses or how it can be rated. I also know that there have been some issues with the ER at Villages Hospital as it relates to insufficient staff to handle demand. Hopefully, it is getting better. However, I will say that I had surgery at the Villages Hospital a couple of months ago and I was impressed with their overall process, the caring and attentive staff, attention to detail, and the overall care that I received during my stay. It was excellent. It was as good or even better than what I recieved in Jacksonville.

Bottom line for me, I am not sure the Medicare ratings are fair to a hospital that specializes in a single age group, no matter what that age group is!

Your experience is an isolated one compared to the large amounts of data that is used to arrive at the 1 star rating. I'm not good with math- but for example- for every person like you who might give them a top rating, there may be 10 who give it a low rating. These 10 low ratings are important in determining what the potential outcome might be for future visitors. Our hospital up North had a terrible reputation in our community- with people saying things like, "I wouldn't bring my dog there". But in the 55 years I and my family used it we had nothing but excellent care- they even saved my life.

My wife was in there twice. Other than long wait in emergency I have no complains. Most all other emergency hospitals we enter was long wait also.

We have also had positive experiences at TV Hospital and know of positive experiences at Leesburg. Since Shands and TV and Leesburg are owned by the came Company (UF Health), and people can skew statistics I will continue to use my personal experience to guide me.

Based on my experience at the Village’s Hospital, a rating of 1 is very generous. On the other hand, I couldn’t give a high enough rating to the North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville. The treatment I got at the two hospitals was like the difference between hell and heaven. North Florida Regional Medical Center managed to save my life despite the Village Hospital’s best efforts to kill me.

Data is several years and does not reflect a hospitals “current” operation.

Some seem to think the rating is based on customer feedback like Amazon or the like. What is actually measured is: 1) Mortality; 2) Safety of care; 3) Readmission; 4) Patient experience; and 5) Timely and effective care

Can you provide more details as to what the difference was?

The switch to back 1 star occurred since April 2023.
In April the POA had an article that showed a 2 star rating and hospital has fallen back to one star. I will continue to drive past TVH to seek care.
I have been to the HCA ER in Summerfield on 441 and the wait time was less than 5 min!

If UF is involved it pretty much sucks that's the baseline

My mother has been there since Monday morning and she has received AWESOME care from AWESOME staff!! My family is extremely satisfied with the quality of care our mother is receiving at this hospital. My experience with UF here, for mom, and as a patient myself in Gainesville has been top notch!

First hand experience with the ER, it is not only the long wait and limited communication with the hospital staff you also deal with apathy. When I last went to the ER I decided to give them a chance to see if it really improved like we were told by the insert in the newspaper by the CEO of the hospital. After waiting four hours to get an x-ray and than another hour waiting for results we were told we could go. The staff walk around like zombies not acting if they care about the patient. The man next to me finally said he was leaving and walked out. When the nurse came out I told her that her patient left and her response was "Oh Well". Our nurse forgot to remove my iv from my arm. I got half way home and realized that I had the iv still in my arm. I thought there is no way I am going back to that place. I so much wanted the ER to be improved, one star is being generous, however I will never go to the village hospital again for emergency services. It is a shame since they are at the best location for all of us in the villages. Final thought, they may be under staffed but there is no reason that the two nurses I dealt with made me feel as if they didn't care if I lived or died. There is no need for apathy from the nursing staff.

I’ve been in TVH several times in the past 18 months and have always received excellent care. Staff was always helpful and professional.

I agree! We have over 200,000 residents here in The Villages, most over 55 years of age. No other hospital services one group of people more. I have been to The Villages hospital and received excellent care…even saved my life on one of those visits. And I’ve been to other hospitals in the country, in my lifetime, where the care wasn’t so good, yet, they were rated 5 stars.

just had surgery at hospital.great staff,doctors,beautifull room,very good care,would recommend anytime

Mortality rates and readmission rates indicate failure to provide the right level of care when the patient leaves the hospital. There is a continuum of care that The Villages Health system does not practice strategies to prevent readmissions, patient needs assessment, medication reconciliation, timely follow up appointments, patient education, initiating follow up phone calls, to name a few. If these strategies were properly implemented the mortality rates, defined as death within 28 days of admission would drop. So the entire health system not just the hospital fails our community. The other factor that affects mortality is the “never say die” philosophy. There are good ways to die and bad ways. An acceptance of earlier palliative and hospice care would make sense in an elderly population.

I go to Shans, not taking any chances with my life

I would imagine its rated on medicaree patients only. That would put all comparosons using the same age category

UF just sold them the name. Remember when Moffitt came to TV? Again, the name was sild. No real collaboration.

TVH experience
 

Spent two weeks at TVH and left quickly after one night the staff left a man down the hall screaming in pain all night. I had the staff help me walk down the hall to make my legs strong enough to get out of that place the next day.

Villages Hospital
 

I had two different surgical procedures in June this year and I am very pleased with every aspect of care received as well as all personnel encountered.
I've been in several hospitals in Pennsylvania, Ohio & WV. . I would rate The Villages Hospital better than any I've been to up north.

Two different ratings ...
 

The formal guidelines followed in rating hospitals is very different from one's personal experience at those hospitals.

Recently my son was admitted to TVRH's ER with a cardiac issue. I wrote up a description of our experience there (I stayed with him every minute!), and brief as I tried to make it, it's simply too long to post in a thread. If you're interested, please PM me and I'll send it through that channel. Thank you.

Suffice it to say that my son's experience in the ER was the antithesis of my experience in that same ER following an accident more than a dozen years ago....

Unfortunately this gives the reader absolutely no idea if you are overall thumbs up or thumbs down in your evaluation of current care.

Once you have been to Shans you will never go back to TV hospital

We have had two positive major cardiac events cared for at the TV hospital. One was mine and the other was the spouse. One was via the ER at the hospital during peak season resulting in the only issue being bed availability and having to spend a few hours on a gurney in an ER room with hospital admission late in the evening. Responsiveness and attentiveness was excellent in both the ER and hospital. The other event was via the UF ER on CR44. Again, the response at the ER was immediate and excellent leading to a ride to the hospital in an ambulance for emergency surgery and admission for a few days. The hosptal expience was again excellent and a cleaning lady came in daily to disinfect everything. I do not understand the low rating and the venom espoused by some of the posters. Every person that I know who has had TV hospital experience is very positive on their experience.

True.

Change takes time, and even if this new Director whips the place into (say) four-star line, it won't happen overnight. Personnel changes take time (a LOT of time if there are unions involved), finding new ultra-competent folks is not something that happens instantly, and no matter what positive changes are made and implemented, it will take a loooong time for the positives to start erasing the negatives--especially because the negatives have been many years in the making.

Unfortunately, time is the one thing we geezers have all too little of. A shiny refurbished five-star hospital where the current one now stands might take 15 years, and as I've already outlived my warranty by going on six years now that's not apt to do me much good.

The rating system does adjust for age...there are NO #1 RATED hospitals in Sun City AZ. There are only 286 #1 rated hospitals in the US. Most of these are in poor areas, reservations or rural areas. They must dump the problem employees and Doctors. Replacement for the are not interested in starting a career in such a poor facility.

Not true.

Briefly was your experience good or bad?

I’m not a judge of hospitals but after I had my 5 way heart bypass. We moved to TV, & the biggest thing my heart surgeon told me was stay clear of anyone that has a virus, & all I needed was a check up, so what does the TV’s hospital do is put me in a waiting room with the flu people but fortunately nobody was puking, but I’m guessing there was 4 people had puke buckets with them. My mistake was I didn’t leave & the waiting room nurses never once offered me a safer place to sit, so finally I decided to sit outside where I thought it was safer! I really thought TV hospital was the #1 hospital in the country, wrong! But the comment I’m addressing this to is exactly right!

Several statements on this thread are wrong. CMS does not only use Medicare data in its rating system. In fact one of the criteria is maternity care related. Some sets of data are collected only from Medicare enrollment and claims

It is not entirely correct that the rating is based on facts not opinions as 22% of the rating is based on patient experience, which is a compilation of several questions asked about the care received both from caregivers and staff. This patient experience survey is adjusted for the mix of patients served so TVH's numbers are not low because they have a lot of old people who can't understand directions.
On the question of "Would you recommend this hospital " an extremely low number of persons who received care at TVH said yes, 44% compared to a national average of 69%.

So all of you posting here about how you enjoyed your stay at TVH, you are in the minority.

Statistically speaking, the opinions on this site of good care/bad care are worthless. The “n” is far too small to arrive at a true assessment of the overall care of The Villages Hospital. The one-star rating is based on the metrics you have stated and the “n” is likely in the tens of thousands. Why go to a one-star hospital when there are higher rated hospitals within a reasonable driving distance? If diagnosed with cancer, would you seek treatment at TV hospital or take the drive to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa that is rated number 10 in the nation?
Your body, your choice.

Don't include the 5th floor acute rehab unit in the Hospital Rating.
 

It is nice to see many good ratings and positive experiences above. The 5th floor of the hospital is a separate acute rehab unit. The hospital rating does not include that facility. I was recenlty in the rehab unit for six days after a severe bicycle accident (broken leg, ribs and collar bone), and can't say enough about the quality of the staff and care that I received preparing me the next stage of recovery at home. Would not hesitate to use that facility rather than driving to the other two available in Ocala.

I agree
 

I was there three times and each time they were excellent, when the snow birds are here, they are over worked and under staffed, I do not know what Medicare is looking for, but in my eyes, the Village Hospital is excellent and the people that work they are very dedicated. The problem is it's a small hospital. it cannot handle the population that The Villages has grown to remember everybody in the villages goes to the Village Hospital of Leesburg, there are the hospitals you want to go to Jacksonville that's a thousand bed hospital The Villages is only 400 beds

Don't include the 5th floor rehab in the Hosiptal Rating
 

If you ever need an acute rehab facility the 5th floor of the hosiptal is a seperate legal entity that provides those services. The hospital 1 rating does not include the rehab unit. I was recently there for 6 days after a severe bicycle accident (broken ribs, collarbone and, and leg/hip) I can't say enough about the quality of the staff and care I received preparing me for the next phase of recovery at home. Would not hesitate to go there again if I needed care rather than going to the facilities in Ocala.

1 star is generous
 

My personal experience at the Villages hospital was quite bad. I’m sure many have had good outcomes, but with a 1 star rating there must be a systemic problem. Believing what they told me, it was just a month later that I had to return north for surgery for a problem they didn’t, but easily could have identified. I hope, should have an emergency, I can be transported anywhere else. When the VH comes up in discussions, I have heard repeated descriptions of experiences just like mine. I have seen posts here about the hospital serving a large community of older people. Ok, then make the changes, and hire the people who know how to keep older people alive, and healthy. I believe the 1 star assessment is generous. I hope they manage the hospital in a way that will get them 5 stars. In the meantime perhaps I need a bracelet that says ‘anywhere but the villages’

A highly visible tattoo might be a better idea!