Some hospitals are efficient – defined as delivering excellent care at relatively low cost, while others are quite inefficient – high cost, not great care.
Then there are the high cost and unknown quality of care facilities – but the net is this – cost ≠ quality, and quality does not cost more.
The Lown Institute has done some great research on this, and identified the nation’s 10 most efficient hospitals – the criterion being how much Medicare was charged compared to how many patients died 30 and 90 days from admission. OK, that isn’t by any stretch a comprehensive definition, but the results were revealing.
Costs ranged from $9,000 to $27,000 per patient…and if all hospitals operated as efficiently as the top 10, we taxpayers would save $8 billion each year.
Of course private payers are charged more, and pay more than Medicare. Nonetheless, efficient hospitals are going to be efficient for all payers.
Here’s the top ten.
- Pinnacle Hospital (Crown Point, Ind.)
- Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center (Reno, Nev.)
- MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center (Dubuque, Iowa)
- Encino Hospital Medical Center (Encino, Calif.)
- Park Ridge Health (Hendersonville, N.C.)
- Oroville Hospital (Oroville, Calif.)
- Saint Michael’s Medical Center (Newark, N.J.)
- UnityPoint Health-Meriter (Madison, Wis.)
- East Liverpool City Hospital (East Liverpool, Ohio)
- Maple Grove Hospital (Maple Grove, Minn.)
Curious about another hospital? Click here to find out how it ranked.
What does this mean for you?
Knowledge is power – but only if you use it.
