[Villages Kahuna]

Originally Posted by JoMar

I believe previous threads have indicated that while the ratings are low, a large number of folks who have been there received exceptional care....

From a nurse-supervisor friend who worked at TVRH... ”The hospital is OK for simple illnesses or needs. But if you have something that might require more complicated treatment or surgery, go somewhere else.”

From a Villages Health doctor... ”If you are admitted to TVRH, be sure to ask to have a Villages Health hospitalist listed as your attending physician. They will probably resist, but be insistent on this issue. Otherwise good care there can’t be assured.”

From another friend, a retired health insurance executive who evaluated TVRH extensively before moving here... ”One of the reasons for TVRH’s low ratings is the high number of people who become infected while in the hospital. The frequency of infections and the causes should have been corrected within the first year or two after the hospital opened. Instead, ten years later, TVRH may even have a higher level of patient infections than when they opened.”

From a friend who works as a volunteer at TVRH...” My job as a volunteer is to wheelchair patients to their cars after they’ve been discharged. I hear all the complaints and horrible stories. It’s unbelievable.”

[gatorbill1]

We should all be happy the hospital is here and close enough to sometimes save lives.

[bobdeb]

My wife had a serious bicycling accident in TV ten years ago. She was transported to TVRH by ambulance on a Friday afternoon.

We had no established physician or provider here at that time. We interviewed three surgeons over the weekend while she remained in traction.

Major surgery was performed on Monday morning. Thankfully all went well and we were so grateful for the care she received by everyone at the hospital.

Sadly, her surgeon has since moved and she now practices in Georgia.

From this experience I have nothing negative to say about TVRH. My wife was well cared for.

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

Entitled residents who go there for a hangnail cause the turn times, and if you read reviews on this site, the same people who bitch about the hospital bitch about pretty much everything.

I've read the reviews, but anyone I have talked to that ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED the hospital has mostly good things to say about the care they received. I have not used the hospital but did take a friend to the ER who got a face full of softball and they were all over it, and quickly.

Miserable people are only happy when they are miserable.

I rather bitch than be dead in TV hospital. For example, they have an abysmally poor record of treating sepsis with only 20% of the time diagnosing it correctly.
I trust Medicare ratings more than a puppet’s propaganda.

[Neils]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Glad to see a reply above from someone who has first-hand experience with CMS, the company which creates the ratings for Medicare.

I’ve heard that UF Health has gotten rid of quite a few under-performing medical and support employees at TVRH. But I’ve also heard that they’re having a tough time replacing them. The Villages reputation precedes it, and from the viewpoint of many being recruited to work and relocate here, the story isn’t always attractive.

Some of the issues that UF Health is having a hard time defending when trying to hire new staff include:

— Too white, not a great place for minorities of any kind.
— Not attractive to young families, OK schools but little else.
— Too far from the cutting edge medically
— The Villages is too homogeneous. And to live in a younger, more heterogenous community would require a long commute.
— Too one-sided politically
— Mostly geriatric patients (doesn’t enhance their experience/resumé)

Those are the positives. Any negatives?

[JimJohnson]

The Villages hospital ratings you refer to are from the patients. The patients are predominantly from The Villages; hence, the most entitled people in this country. The Villages Hospital is just fine.

[villageuser]

The Villages Hospital has vastly improved since being taken over by UF Health. The change was quite noticeable. I wonder how long it takes to update the data being used in that website you went to.

[J1ceasar]

When we moved here 20 years ago it was because the Leesburg hospital was the second best rated for heart attack care. I've since had several Leesburg took care of me both times and I'm still alive. I'm not sure what the reason the ratings are the way they are but I can probably tell you it's due to having doctors with less experience. If they would hire doctors from New York or Chicago that have seen it all with 20 years in their belts it would be a difference also if you don't own it you don't really care. I don't know whether or not this is a for-profit hospital not owned by the doctors but if it says Advent then I presume it's a large corporation where the doctors don't care about the profits or possibly the patients as much as if they owned it with their names on the bills and corporation papers

[Rwirish]

No the University of Florida took over the TV hospital. Shands is a University of Florida hospital.

[mlmarr1]

Remember UF shands just acquired TVRH and LRMC and is cleaning house.. plus lack of housing for employees...most drive from out of the area now.. advent health Orlando if a major city.. stay healthy and you wont need a hospital.

[mlmarr1]

Updates... with Medicare for ever..if ever..remember its data entry..

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

For such a physically-beautiful facility, how can The Villages Regional Hospital have such abysmally low ratings?

The Medicare “search for healthcare” tool shows TVRH rated at one-star (out of five) both by Medicare as well as a survey of recent patients. It’s the only hospital within 40 miles rated this low. Leesburg Regional Hospital isn’t much better, rated at two stars by Medicare and only one-star by patients.

The closest hospital with decent ratings is Advent Waterman Hospital in Tavares, rated at four-stars by Medicare and three-stars by patients.

To get top-rated hospitals we have to go to Shands in Gainesville or several in central Florida, but none closer than 50 miles away. We should probably take this into consideration when selecting our specialist doctors. Where do they have admitting priveledges and where do they perform procedures or surgeries? More importantly, are the better-rated hospitals and the doctors who practice there covered by your health insurance plan?

How long will it take for UF Health to improve care at our local hospitals? Or will we have to wait a decade until the new hospital is built and opened in the southern end of The Villages? In that all three hospitals will be owned by UF Health, we can guess how much emphasis will be placed on improving what will then be two older hospitals.

I can’t use the hospital or medical services here at The Villages because they use some proprietary insurance thing and don’t accept Blue Cross/Blue Shield. AdventHealth/Waterman in Tavares is rated #3 in the Orlando Area and #28 in the state, and that’s a mile above the hospital here. It’s 35 minutes from my house. AdventHealth/Waterman is tied to AdventHealth/Orlando, however, and U.S. News and World Report says that is the #1 hospital in Florida. However, it is also gigantic, while Waterman is new and cozy.

Here are the criteria used for the ratings: “ To help patients decide where to receive care, U.S. News generates hospital rankings by evaluating data on nearly 5,000 hospitals in 16 adult medical specialties, 10 adult procedures or conditions and 10 pediatric specialties. To be nationally ranked in a specialty, a hospital must excel in caring for the sickest, most medically complex patients. In most specialties, the top 50 hospitals are nationally ranked and additional hospitals may be recognized as high performing. Hospitals that do well in multiple areas of adult care may be ranked in their state and metro area. The ratings in procedures and conditions focus on typical Medicare patients and eligibility is based on the number of patients treated. See details for the quality measures that factored into each evaluation.”

If you go to AdventHealth doctors at The Villages, they can steer you to AdventHealth/Waterman if needed or get you into AdventHealth/Orlando if you have an especially difficult case.

One thing I want to make clear: the rating of the hospital is not based on the nursing care, or at least only partly, as when administration won’t hire enough nurses. In my experience, even hospitals with low rankings may have many really wonderful nurses and other staff, and the hospitals may be clean and modern and attractive. Hospitals that don’t treat thousands of the sickest or poorest patients, aren’t regional trauma centers, and don’t have a legion of interns and residents using patients as learning tools tend to have lower ratings. Yet most patients don’t need those things, and they may make a hospital more dangerous. Many excellent surgeons actually don’t want to work at a “teaching hospital” because the teaching takes a lot of time that could be used making more money. Few doctors get rich these days, so I can’t blame them for wanting more patients and not wanting to live in a big city.

[Leadbone1]

You need to do your research and find out why they get a low rating. It’s not because of the care people get once they’re admitted. It’s because of the emergency room waits and so forth which is a direct result of the age of the population surrounding the hospital. They probably get 2 to 3 times the amount of ambulances coming in there that most other hospitals do.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Neils

Those are the positives. Any negatives?

[pkfavreau2]

Ratings will go up when the hospitals are staffed adequately for the facilities that exist instead of building more. That means hiring and retaining employees with decent wages and hours. Even the doctors offices are short staffed. Sad since health care is one thing they promote for The Villages.