Thursday, September 17, 2009

We’re No. 11!

Remember the ads that one of rental car companies did a few years ago? “We’re Number Two!” I’m glad to say, “We’re Number 11!”

I am really excited about this year’s Consumer Reports feature on healthcare. This is the first time they have rated healthcare institutions and GRMC did very well.

Despite the challenging financial situation we’ve been working with the past few years, GRMC ranked 11th out of 117 hospitals in the entire state of Iowa for overall patient rating. We are also providing this excellent care at 30 percent below the national average for healthcare costs.

It’s a team effort and I am proud of everyone – medical staff, employees, volunteers, and our community supporters – who make GRMC the quality institution it is.

Hospitals were ranked using a variety of benchmarks on quality, patient satisfaction, as well as data from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice for the Approach to Chronic Care section and pulled information from the Dartmouth Atlas study, which also presents Iowa hospitals and GRMC in a very positive way.

GRMC excelled above all of our competition. GRMC scored 77 along with Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids and Waverly Health Center. The highest score in the state went to Mercy Iowa City with an 84.

If you are familiar with the Consumer Report’s easy to understand rating circles, you’ll be excited to see we have five full red circles (the best score), two half circles in red (second best) and one empty circle, which is neutral. No black circles, the lowest rating.

There's one other tweener hospital that ranked higher than we did. I'm proud to say that our friends at St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, Iowa scored 82 and they are number five. There's a goal for us!

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent GRMC’s positions, strategies, or opinions.

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