Healthy Living Tips from
The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | September 2023
Hospital Ratings and the Quest for Quality Care : Deborah is High Performing in 5 Specialties
U . S . News and World Report publishes its High Performing Hospital Ratings each summer . In five specialties , Heart Attack , Heart Bypass Surgery , Heart Failure , Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ( COPD ) and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement ( TAVR ), Deborah Heart and Lung Center was named a 2023-2024 High Performing Hospital . High Performing is the rating recognizing “ care that was significantly better than the national average .” This is the highest award a hospital can earn for U . S . News ’ Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions ratings .
The U . S . News Procedures & Conditions methodology is based on proprietary objective measures of quality such as survival rates , patient experience and how successfully each hospital helps patients get back and stay home .
Different Methodologies Drive Healthcare Ratings and Rankings The truth is every private or public organization that ranks or rates hospitals uses a different methodology . Hospital readmissions , mortality , safety of care , infection rates , patient satisfaction and chronic disease management are often weighted differently .
In the spirit of the full transparency we value at every level of our organization , Deborah deliberately curates a handful of private ratings programs to participate in where we value the metrics . Deborah also compares registries from a peer perspective by looking at national averages and how similar institutions are doing .
Finally , the federal government ’ s extensive rankings and ratings programs are public information and we look closely at those too . So how does a consumer know which rankings and ratings to care about ? According to Deborah ’ s Chief Medical Officer Aaron Kugelmass , MD , “ it can be very confusing .”
Dr . Kugelmass said , “ the same hospital might be rated high by one organization and low by another . And often our specialties at Deborah , Heart , Lung and Vascular , are not even included in certain ratings programs .”
What exactly does it mean to provide quality healthcare ? According to the National Academy of Sciences ’ Institute of Medicine ( IOM ,) quality healthcare is :
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Safe Effective Patient-Centered Timely Efficient Equitable
Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines
But what guides doctors ? “ The indicator of quality care we physicians care most about is the use of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and best practices to drive care decisions ,” Dr . Kugelmass said . “ These are agreed upon care recommendations for specific conditions .”
According to U . S . News and World Report , more than 4,300 hospitals are evaluated in at least one of the ratings cohorts . Each hospital that meets the rating criteria is assigned to one of three overall performance bands – high performing , average and below average – so that patients and families can quickly identify hospitals whose performance meets or exceeds the national norm . Deborah ’ s High Performing rating in five specialties affirms its standing as a nationally recognized cardiac center of excellence , Dr . Kugelmass said . Deborah is consistently recognized as a leader in quality patient care .
For more information , visit www . demanddeborah . org or call 855.856.7146 . Chief Medical Officer Aaron Kugelmass , MD
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