HCN Healthcare Recruiting

Picking A Hospital Can Give You A Headache 
By CORRIE BENFIELD The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 13, 2008

If you needed surgery, and you had to pick a hospital in your area, how would you choose? You could base your decision on word of mouth. Or quality of care. Or even price.

Trying to gather all the information and weigh the facts can be complicated. One place to start is Medicare’s recently updated Hospital Compare tool at www.medicare.gov. The site allows you to gauge patient satisfaction, pricing and quality of care based on patient records submitted by participating hospitals.

The database was created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Hospital Quality Alliance, a public-private partnership, to track how often hospitals provide certain recommended treatments in four categories: surgery, pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure. It also includes patients’ responses to surveys about overnight stays, as well as the average amount Medicare pays for procedures at specific hospitals.

To give you an idea of how local hospitals measure up, here is information about the health care providers in Hillsborough and Pasco counties included in the database. Of the 14 hospitals, the five that provided the most patient records in each treatment area are compared. In cases in which the recommended treatment would not have benefited the patient, for reasons such as allergies, that information was not counted against the hospital.

Surgery patients who received preventive antibiotics one hour before incision:

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 90%

University Community Hospital — 86%

Tampa General Hospital — 85%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 82%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 74%

Surgery patients whose preventive antibiotics are stopped within 24 hours after surgery:

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 84%

University Community Hospital — 83%

Tampa General Hospital — 72%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 66%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 58%

Surgery patients whose doctors ordered treatments to prevent blood clots (venous thromboembolism) for certain types of surgeries:

Community Hospital — 94%

Tampa General Hospital — 87%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 67%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 66%

University Community Hospital — 65%

Surgery patients who received treatment to prevent blood clots within 24 hours before or after selected surgeries to prevent blood clots:

Community Hospital — 85%

Tampa General Hospital — 82%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 63%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 62%

University Community Hospital — 59%

Percent of Heart Attack Patients Given Aspirin at Arrival

ST. JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL — 98%

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL — 97%

BRANDON REGIONAL HOSPITAL — 95%

REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER BAYONET POINT — 95%

FLORIDA HOSPITAL Z-HILLS — 93%

Percent of Heart Attack Patients Given Aspirin at Discharge

ST. JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL — 96%

TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL — 96%

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL — 96%

REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER BAYONET POINT — 95%

BRANDON REGIONAL HOSPITAL — 91%

Pneumonia patients assessed and given pneumococcal vaccination:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 73%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 69%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 66%

Memorial Hospital Of Tampa — 66%

University Community Hospital — 40%

Pneumonia patients whose initial emergency room blood culture was performed before the administration of the first hospital dose of antibiotics:

South Florida Baptist Hospital — 95%

Memorial Hospital Of Tampa — 93%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 81%

University Community Hospital — 79%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 69%

Pneumonia patients given initial antibiotics within 6 hours after arrival:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 96%

Town & Country Hospital — 89%

University Community Hospital — 86%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 84%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 79%

Percent of Pneumonia Patients Given the Most Appropriate Initial Antibiotic(s)

ST. JOSPEH’S HOSPITAL — 90%

MEMORIAL HOSPITAL OF TAMPA — 88%

BRANDON REGIONAL HOSPITAL — 86%

REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER BAYONET POINT — 85%

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL — 84%

Pneumonia patients assessed and given influenza vaccination:

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 78%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 67%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 63%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 61%

University Community Hospital — 45%

Heart failure patients given discharge instructions:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 84%

Tampa General Hospital — 74%

St. Joseph’s Hospital — 66%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 53%

University Community Hospital — 31%

WHAT PATIENTS REPORTED

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey gathers patients’ opinions of hospitals where they have recently stayed overnight. Not all hospitals in Hillsborough and Pasco counties had survey results available. Those that did are included here.

Patients who reported that their nurses “always” communicated well:

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 67%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 65%

Tampa General Hospital — 62%

Community Hospital — 62%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 61%

Brandon Regional Hospital —57%

South Bay Hospital — 52%

Patients who reported that their doctors “always” communicated well:

Tampa General Hospital — 71%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 70%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 70%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 67%

Community Hospital — 67%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 63%

South Bay Hospital — 60%

Patients who reported that they “always” received help as soon as they wanted:

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 54%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 53%

Tampa General Hospital — 51%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 51%

Community Hospital — 50%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 43%

South Bay Hospital — 34%

Patients who reported that their pain was “always” well controlled:

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 62%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 62%

Tampa General Hospital — 60%

Community Hospital — 60%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 59%

Brandon Regional Hospital —56%

South Bay Hospital — 45%

Patients who reported that staff “always” explained about medicines before giving it to them:

Tampa General Hospital — 53%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 51%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 51%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 50%

Community Hospital — 47%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 45%

South Bay Hospital — 37%

Patients who reported that their room and bathroom were “always” clean:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 63%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 61%

Community Hospital — 60%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 52%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 50%

South Bay Hospital — 42%

Tampa General Hospital — 49%

Patients who reported that the area around their room was “always” quiet at night:

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 51%

Tampa General Hospital — 47%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 42%

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 41%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 40%

Community Hospital — 37%

South Bay Hospital — 31%

Patients at each hospital who reported that YES, they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 78%

Tampa General Hospital — 78%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 75%

Community Hospital — 72%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 68%

South Bay Hospital — 68%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 68%

Patients who gave their hospital a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest):

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 60%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 58%

Tampa General Hospital — 55%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 50%

Community Hospital — 47%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 40%

South Bay Hospital — 33%

Patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital:

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point — 66%

Pasco Regional Medical Center — 65%

Tampa General Hospital — 63%

Florida Hospital Zephyrhills — 52%

Community Hospital — 48%

Brandon Regional Hospital — 44%

South Bay Hospital — 36%

PRICING HIGHS AND LOWS

Here are some of Medicare’s payment amounts, which are set for each hospital based on the average cost of patients who receive that type of procedure.

Heart Attack Treatment

High: $6,295 at Tampa General Hospital

Low: $4,242 at South Florida Baptist Hospital

Pacemaker Implant

High: $13,785 at Tampa General Hospital

Low: $10,399 at South Bay Hospital

Pneumonia Treatment

High: $9,846 at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center

Low: $5,069 at South Bay Hospital

Prostate Removal

High: $8,176 at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center

Low: $2,846 at South Bay Hospital

Female Reproductive Operations

High: $8,455 at University Community Hospital

Low: $4,003 at Town & Country Hospital

Why do the amounts vary so much?

Hospitals can receive more money for procedures if:

They are teaching facilities.

They treat a high percentage of low-income patients.

They treat unusually expensive cases.

They pay employees more than the national average because they’re in a high-cost area.