Late last month, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council released its latest Hospital Performance Report.
According to a recent press release from the Cost Containment Council, the overall patient mortality rate for conditions reported decreased significantly over a three year period, dropping from 4.5 percent in 2002 to 4.2 percent in 2004, according to the report. The report showed readmission rates increased significantly from 18.1 percent to 18.8 percent during this same time period.
As for this area’s local medical facility, Tyrone Hospital reacted to the findings concerning it specifically.
A press release from the hospital said the Hospital Performance Report for fiscal year 2004 issued by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) shows Tyrone Hospital’s performance is generally what would be expected.
“There are two diagnoses where we had a higher readmission rate,” said Tammy Emigh, Director of Quality Improvement. “We have looked at both of these areas and in both cases the readmissions were for unrelated diagnoses from the first admission. For example, a patient may have been admitted for pneumonia and then some weeks later readmitted for abdominal pain.”
The hospital press release noted, “The hospital’s costs tend to be lower compared to the average charge for other hospitals in Western Pennsylvania and also compared to Pennsylvania as a whole.”
Officials noted this was due to Tyrone Hospital’s smaller size and lower overhead.
The hospital said it continues to operate in what it termed, “an environment of continuous improvement.” The hospital press release noted there are multidisciplinary committees comprised of physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals, who monitor the hospital’s performance in areas included in the PHC4 report on an ongoing basis.
The executive director of the Cost Containment Council offered some thoughts on the overall report released by his organization.
“This year’s report once again highlights areas where Pennsylvania hospitals continue to improve, as well as opportunities for enhancing quality of care,” stated Marc P. Volavka. “Even though the good news is that patient mortality continues to decline, the sharp rise in readmissions means providers must redouble their focus on patient safety, especially complications and infections.”
The PHC4 press release said, when looking at individual treatment categories, mortality decreased significantly in nine of the 24 treatment categories for which three years of data were available. The largest decline was in Aspiration Pneumonia, where the mortality rate decreased from 15.5 percent in 2002 to 12.9 percent in 2004.
“For the categories covered in the report, there were 57,822 readmissions, resulting in almost $1.9 billion in charges and 357,000 hospital days,” noted Volavka. “Complications or infection were the cause of 14,075 readmissions, which added $601 million in charges and 107,000 hospital days. This means that if readmissions for complications or infections were reduced by just 15 percent, then over $90 million in charges would have been saved.”
The independent state agency said the PHC4 Hospital Performance Report includes risk-adjusted mortality rates, lengths of hospitalization (stay), and hospital charges for patients admitted to 180 Pennsylvania hospitals from October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004. The new hard copy report evaluates hospital performance across 30 common medical procedures and treatments, and includes a new category – Removal of Blockage of Neck Vessels (Carotid Endarterectomy). Data for 19 additional treatment categories is available on the PHC4 Web site.
The report also showed there was wide variation in the length of stay among hospitals in 2004.
The PHC4 press release said The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is an independent state agency charged with collecting, analyzing and reporting information that can be used to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in the state.
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On the net: www.phc4.org/reports/hpr/04/
