Introduction
Healthcare data reporting (DR) is a crucial component of modern healthcare since it grants publicity to information about patient outcomes and other statistics concerning hospitals’ efficiency. Eisenhower Health Center, Desert Regional Medical Center, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital provide data about its structure, care process, and patient outcomes to Medicare that makes it publically available through its website. The analysis of this data allows the population to evaluate the performance of the hospitals, considering the crucial indicators of the process of care. The present paper offers an overview of the critical elements of Eisenhower Medical Center (EMC) in comparison with two other acute care providers. The results of the analysis show that EMC outperforms the two other local hospitals almost in all parameters.
Background Information
EMC is an acute care hospital situated in southern California. It is a progressive 463-bed hospital that is famous for its reputation as a premier health care facility (Eisenhower Health, n.d.). Its mission is to serve the changing healthcare needs of the region by providing excellence in patient care with supportive education and research (Eisenhower Health, n.d.). The medical center is rated five stars on the Medicare website considering six crucial indicators of the process of care (“Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) and John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital (JFKMH) are located in the same vicinity. However, they rate lower by Medicare, suggesting that their performance needs improvement.
Process of Care Indicators
Patients’ Survey
EMC’s performance in terms of patient satisfaction is slightly above average in California and below the national average. According to the Medicare official website, it as a three-star rating based on patient surveys and 81% of patients would recommend this hospital (“Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). Among its strengths are patient communication and cleanliness of the bathrooms, while the major flaw is the failure to explain the course of treatment and the purpose of medications to the patients. These results are similar to those of JFKMH, as this medical facility has the same star-rating; however, only 63% of its patients would recommend the hospital (“John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital,” n.d.). The satisfaction of patients in DRMC is significantly lower in all the aspects if compared to EMC, which is proved by the fact that DRMC’s rating is only two stars (“Desert Regional Medical Center,” n.d.). In brief, EMC outperforms both JFKMH and DRMC in patient satisfaction.
Timely and Effective Care
The aspect of timely and effective care shows how often and how quickly the hospital uses the latest evidence to ensure the best patient outcomes. The results of EMC in this matter are mixed, indicating that the facility has an area that needs improvement. Even though its performance is significantly above California average in most measures, EMC considerably underperformance in emergency care. For instance, in the EMC emergency department (ED), a patient has to wait on 68 minutes on average before seeing a healthcare professional (“Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). This number is 23 minutes in JFKMH (“John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital,” n.d.) and 16 minutes in DRMC (“Desert Regional Medical Center,” n.d.). Therefore, the process of care in the ED of EMC needs to be reformed to meet the standards of modern care.
Complications and Deaths
This measure describes the rate of patients that develop complications or die during or shortly after their stay in a hospital. This parameter is almost the same in all the three hospitals discussed in the present paper and equals to the national rate. However, the number of people that develop serious complications after the treatment in EMC is lower than the US average (“Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). Therefore, EMC is slightly ahead of its competitors judging by this aspect.
Unplanned Hospital Visits
This parameter stands for unplanned readmission rates among the hospitals. Medicare states that the number of unplanned hospital visits in EMC is significantly lower than the national rate of 15.3% (Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). In JFKMH and DRMC this number is very close to the US average, making EMC a more efficient facility considering this measure. The matter may be connected to timely and effective care discussed above since EMC’s performance is the result of the utilization of the latest research results.
Payment and Value of Care
This measure juxtaposes the value care received to its cost in comparison with the national rate. According to the Medicare official website, EMC provides the same care for a lower price since its Medicare spending per beneficiary is below the US average (Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). Moreover, EMC is also leading in this parameter if compared to JFKMH and DRMC. This aspect of the process of care may contribute to customer satisfaction serving as one of the primary incentives to use EMC instead of its competitor. Therefore, JFKMH and DRMC need to look for ways to decrease the cost of care. One of the possibilities to do so is to utilize the latest research results and guidelines of the process of care.
Use of Medical Imaging
This measure shows how effectively a medical facility uses imaging tests such as mammograms, MRIs, and CT scans. EMC uses these tests on a more frequent basis if compared to its competitors and the national average (Eisenhower Medical Center,” n.d.). This may lead to an increased cost of care and decreased customer satisfaction. However, the analysis of patient surveys and cost per patient provided above show that the utilization of imaging tests affects neither of these parameters. Hence, it may be stated that EMC uses an effective strategy considering this measure.
Discussion
The summary of the evidence shows that EMC outperforms both DRMC and JFKMH in all the parameters. The advantages of publically reporting these datasets for EMC are obvious since patients would be me more likely to choose this hospital rather than DRMC or JFKMH. However, its disadvantages for EMC’s competitors are also clear since they would have fewer clients. According to Campanella et al. (2016), the introduction of public reporting programs is “a challenging but rewarding public health strategy” (p. 296), as it promotes transparency and hospital accountability. Therefore, the advantages for DRMC and JFKMH lie in demonstration of areas that require improvement and in creating incentives for further development. At the same time, disclosing this information may lead to high expectations causing decreased customer satisfaction. Nonetheless, the pros of public reporting seem to be more numerous and significant than its cons.
Conclusion
In the present paper, crucial indicators of the process of care of EMC were compared to its closest competitors. The results of juxtaposition show that EMC considerably outperforms both JFKMH and DRMC in the majority of cases, with the only exception of ED statistics. While public reporting of this data may seem disadvantageous for EMC’s competitors, it provides incentives for improvement to all the healthcare facilities in the area.
References
Campanella, P., Vukovic, V., Parente, P., Sulejmani, A., Ricciardi, W., & Specchia, M. (2016). The impact of Public Reporting on clinical outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 296. Web.
Desert Regional Medical Center. (n.d.). Web.
Eisenhower Health. (n.d.). About us. Web.
Eisenhower Medical Center. (n.d.). Web.
John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital. (n.d.). Web.