To The Editor:
This was posted on the POA website. After reading this, why would anyone choose The Villages Hospital?
CMS Star Ratings Are In – The Villages Regional Hospital Falls to a 1 Star Rating!
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) has finally released to the public the updated Star Quality ratings, and the news is not good for The Villages Regional Hospital (TVRH) or Villagers, as TVRH has now fallen to a 1 Star Rating. In 2017, TVRH fell from a 3 Star to a 2 Star.
CMS has delayed release of the ratings after hospitals have pushed back hard on how the ratings are calculated and compared. While it may be that TVRH serves a population that is not easily compared to other hospitals of its size, the numbers are what they are. It is unacceptable that:
• Villagers have a 503-minute wait time before being admitted, up from 454 minutes last year, — and 194 minutes longer than other hospitals.
• It takes 260 minutes to leave from a TVRH ER visit, also up from 246 minutes last year – and 80 minutes longer than other hospitals.
• Incidents of sepsis increased from 22% last year to 30% this year. Timely ER care continues to be best for patients being treated for broken bones, and patients presenting with stroke symptoms who received scan results with 45 minutes of arrival is a more positive 79%.
• Under “Infections and Complications,” Catheter-associated urinary tract infections and cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)were classified as worse than the National Benchmark (1.340 and 1.698 respectively).
• In the category of 30-day “Death Rates” (patients who died within 30 days of hospital treatment), heart failure and pneumonia continued to be worse than the national average.
Death rates for heart attack and stroke were the same as the national average.
Central Line associated bloodstream infections, intestinal infections were classified as better than the National Benchmark (.552,.971,) and surgical site infections from colon surgery were no different than the National Benchmark.
To look at and compare TVRH and other hospitals of interest, visit https://medicare.gov/hospitalcompare.
William Bolash
Village of Winifred
