Asheville VA, Pardee, AdventHealth get top grades in latest Medicare hospital ratings
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its annual hospital ratings July 31, awarding top five-star ratings for quality of care to the Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville/Oteen, the Margaret R. Pardee Memorial Hospital in Hendersonville, and AdventHealth Hendersonville.
Mission Hospital in Asheville, which is owned by for-profit hospital operator HCA Healthcare of Nashville, was awarded four stars for overall quality. In February, CMS placed Mission in immediate jeopardy, the most serious sanction a hospital can face, because of deficiencies in care there. CMS has since lifted the sanction.
Although it scored higher than average for overall quality, Mission scored below average for patient satisfaction, with two stars. The VA Medical Center received five stars for patient experience, and both Pardee and AdventHealth Hendersonville received four stars in the patient survey. All three of the higher-ranking hospitals in the Asheville region are not-for-profit.
CMS assesses Medicare-qualified hospitals based on 46 hospital quality measures divided into five categories: mortality, safety, patient experience, readmission rates, and timely and effective care.
The patient survey rating measures patients’ experiences of their hospital care. Recently discharged patients were asked about topics like how well nurses and doctors communicated, how responsive hospital staff were to their needs, and the cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment.
The ratings can be found on the Hospital Compare website.
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Other HCA-owned hospitals in western North Carolina received four-star or three-star ratings. Highlands-Cashiers Hospital was not rated.
Nationwide, 483 out of 3,076 hospitals received five stars for overall quality, while 276 were given the lowest ranking, one star, including Erlanger Murphy Medical Center in Murphy, in the far western corner of the state.
Johnson City Medical Center, the flagship hospital for the not-for-profit Ballad Health chain based in Johnson City, Tenn., received one star for quality and two for patient satisfaction, making it the lowest-ranked major hospital in the region. Ballad operates 20 hospitals.
Akin Demehin, the American Hospital Association’s senior director of quality and patient safety, said “the AHA continues to encourage patients to complement information from star ratings and other hospital rankings with discussions with clinicians who know their care needs to help make fully informed decision about their care.”
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