Hospitals & Healthcare ?
 

We were at TV about two years ago, really liked the area though felt healthcare/local hospitals were not up to speed. Have there been any changes/additions made in the last two years or so to address this ?

TV Hospital is currently still holding a one star CMS rating.

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Well first off, it isn't The Villages Hospital anymore. In fact, it's had TWO name changes since it was TVH. So it's very possible that your data is outdated.

As of this past year, it received a C rating on Healthgrades, with patient experience being over 20% lower than the National Average. But it also rates as expected for 11 other criteria, and better than expected for 2 criteria. It's also won awards for prostate care.

Their emergency room is horrible. But so are most emergency rooms.

In addition, the hospital isn't the entirety of "health care" in or around The Villages. First, it's not the only hospital. There's Leesburg, down 441/27. And then there's Shands and Gainesville to the north.

There are literally DOZENS of medical practices with golf cart access to Villagers. It might even be hundreds, but I got bored counting the red pins on my google map search result after I hit 25. Multiple specialties, from dermatologists to proctologists, cancer centers and oncologists, cardiologists, a couple of places that specialize exclusively in colonoscopies, foot doctors, orthopedists, senior stuff, memory care, and everything inbetween. Multiples of each. Within those multiple dozens (or possibly hundreds) you're likely to find at least one of each that's awesome.

There has been improvement since UF took over the Villages (and Leesburg) hospitals. Beware that 1-star rating, it is based on very limited criteria and tends to lag years behind reality.

Most of us are just happy there is hospital in villages. You got your choice villages hospital, Leesburg Hospital, Ocala Hospitals, Gainesville Hospitals , Orlando hospitals or stay where at? If got emergency where near death I be happy there is hospital close. Depending on where live may long ways to others.

I admittedly don't know much about medicine, but I suspect the ratings are also skewed by fact the local hospital deals with a fairly vulnerable demographic?

I would think that if a hospital is serving an area where the vast majority of the population is over 55, your numbers would not be as good as if you were serving an area with normal demographics.

Partially. They generally look at only a few diagnoses---acute myocardial infarction, community acquired pneumonia, congestive heart failure and nosocomial/post op infections. A more elderly population tends not to do as well with these particular conditions. Also, some of the metrics are not really quality related----if a nurse gives you your 5 PM Tylenol at 5:30, everything is fine. If it is given at 5:31 that is considered a "medication error". If the patient dies 2 weeks later of their stage 4 pancreatic cancer but is still in the hospital on the same admission, that is a "death due to medication error", at least in part. I don't know about Florida, but in NY the health department's main goal is not quality of care, but how bad they can make doctors, nurses and hospitals look. Most states have a health department that is a few rooms in the capitol, NY has a 50-story office building in Albany. They employ over 5,000, and NY City employs another 7,000+, Ohio about 1,100 and Arizona has 800.

... to say nothing of the fact, that most real medical professionals would be working in their field, not picking up a check at the public trough?

CMS measure and my thoughts:
Mortality - age of people in area
Safety of Care - patient safety like getting hurt trying to get out of bed unassisted
Readmission - patients tend to not get over illnesses as easy as young and must return
Patient Experience - patient survey
Timely & Effective Care - check in, time seen, issue/illness resolved

I think the hospital here has a very good rating when you look at overall care from non-medicare patients.

We lived in SE Michigan for 70 years and then did the next 8 in Myrtle Beach and the Villages. The biggest problem with moving is your medical care. In Michigan we had suprior doctors and facilities. If you are looking for the same type of care in the south you won’t find it. I guess it is just a trade off you are going to have to decide on.

They seem to be adding stand alone emergency rooms instead of hospitals. They have added one on 44 and one on 466a. The planned hospital south of 44 was cancelled due to staffing concerns.

My concern is they will double the population without any new hospitals. Only see it getting worse in the next 20 years as the population grows.

I fell and broke my kneecap 6 months ago. I called 911, they took me to Leesburg hospital because “that’s where the orthopedic surgeon is” I was told. Got X-rays, yes you need surgery but unfortunately we don’t have an on call doctor, The Villages does though. Let’s get you transferred over there. It took 6 hours of them trying to get me into ANY UF hospital for surgery but not one of them would take me because I was in a “grey area” so they discharged me to find my own orthopedic surgeon. It took me one week to finally get the surgery done. Now I’ve lost all range of motion in my knee. So….. NO, they have not gotten better. I ended up needing another surgery and went to Jewett in Orlando. Lousy healthcare is the only thing I dislike about being here.

I’m not on Medicare and the hospitals here are horrible. Terrible. The worst.

I am finding a few issues with this thread. First off, is the golf cart thing, if you strap yourself to golf cart reachable logic you're pretty much screwed with a couple exceptions. I think it's funny that people here fly back home to get care, when they could have saved that money and gone somewhere down here for the same or better care. The problem is golf cart or bust in most of those cases, the other half is like yours reading this and that and not knowing the reality.

Well over the last 3 years I have lived that reality in a multiple circumstance view. First and foremost I have medical practitioners in my family. So their input was a factor in my results. I have come to find the following, also knowng that YMMV.

I have noticed there are a lot of "money grabbers" in a 50 mile radius, mostly is due to TV residents much like the companies that perform work at the residences. The hear TV and it's bonus time.

Next is personal experience with UF - Leesburg, TV and Gainsville. All of these do not communicate properly. Actually in our cases that was an F. Gainsville is Shands for only 1 part not the whole thing (another misnomer). Also this is a teaching facility, which means they have a habit of keeping you longer so that their overflow of students get clinical hours easier. This is not a good practice, I lost my mother from these 2 items. So there for the UF to me stands for "U f*cked. "

So that posed a major problem this year when I was faced with my own choice for something I never in my life expected, having to choose for my life. Trust me this wasn't easy but with some very reliable input and a prayer I went to Advent Health. Yes that meant going into the Orlando area, Ocala is for horses LOL. I have been to AH Winter Garden, Winter Park and Celebration. While I will easily admit (and so will they) that the cafeteria food is worse than dog vomit, the rest was a complete blessing. Everything that UF didn't do properly, AH did the right way, I should know I had my medical hawks watching them.

I also asked - What if something happens to me at home? Their actual answer was "You call me (care coordinator) and I will have you picked up and brought here immediately". I find that comforting that they 'wrap' you in total care, survey that is surveyed regularly, and are extremely caring people.

Am I a bit biased? Yes, they saved my life otherwise I wouldn't be writing this right now. Did they work with some deathly fear issues in a manner that was amazingly not like any one I have ever met? Yes. I trusted them blindly with my life and they proved worthy of that trust.

So that's my 2 cents, hope it helps.

We went to a presentation where the hospital ratings were reviewed and explained.

Apparently the ratings are several years behind and improvements have been made that will show progress.

We have no major trepidations about healthcare here in TV. The hardest problem we had was finding a non-Medicare doctor we liked.