The hospital is first in New England and 86th nationally out of 4,500 acute-care facilities in a survey.
By Tony Dobrowolski, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Sunday, Oct. 11
PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Medical Center has been ranked first in both the state and New England in a nationwide study conducted by a Tennessee firm that measures health-care value.
Nationally, BMC was ranked 86th out of the 4,500 hospitals that were considered for the 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index by Data Advantage LLC of Nashville, a privately held health-care information company that has specialized in providing the healthcare and business communities with independent and objective information about the country’s hospital industry since 1992.
Only acute-care general service hospitals that participate in the Medicare reimbursement program were considered for the Hospital Value Index, said Data Advantage’s senior adviser John Morrow. Specialty hospitals, veterans hospitals, and private health organizations that don’t participate in federal programs were excluded, he said.
The rankings are based on each hospital’s quality, affordability, efficiency and patient satisfaction performance under the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) regulations. BMC received high marks in all four of those areas. The index is designed to use only objective, verifiable, and quantitative data that are consistent and complete across the country to ensure objective measurement rather than anecdotal evidence, according to Data Advantage.
Berkshire Health Systems Chief Operating Officer Diane Kelly said BMC’s ranking is the culmination of a “10-year journey” that began when BMC’s board of directors and president and CEO David Phelps made a commitment to quality that began when Gray Ellrodt was hired as chair of medicine a decade ago.
“What’s different and exciting about this award is that it has a strong component in quality of care, which is really the mission and purpose of everything that we do here at BMC,” Kelly said. “I’m happy to see that we have valuation from external organizations such as the index not just in top performance in quality, but having done so in a cost-effective manner, which is critical for any health-care system.”
“These national achievements for Berkshire Medical Center are a testament to the dedication of our medical staff, employees, trustees, and leadership team, and reinforce our commitment to providing the highest level of quality care for our patients,” Phelps said in a written statement.
This is the third time that Data Advantage has compiled the Hospital Value Index, but only the second time it has released the rankings publicly, Morrow said. The company’s previous rankings were focused on hospitals that are located in the country’s 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas.
“I don’t know off the top of my head if we ranked BMC previously,” Morrow said. “In the previous rendition, we didn’t rank and report on the findings, but in this rendition we did because we had expanded the analysis to include many, many more markets.”
Before the advent of the Hospital Index, no public measurement existed to integrate efficiency, affordability and quality, Ellrodt said.
“In my mind what’s exciting about this award and the Data Advantage approach is to be able to look at quality and at what cost,” Ellrodt said. “This is a big discussion in Congress right now, value.”
To reach Tony Dobrowolski:
TDobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com
or (413) 496-6224
