Hospitals Respond

Published: Aug 26, 2007

Hospitals mentioned in the Tribune review of cost and quality ratings were asked to comment on the data the Tribune reviewed. Several hospitals did not respond.

In general, hospital executives questioned the accuracy of the data.

Humana notes that the hospitals provided the data they are now questioning. "We sat down with them in January and gave them all the information we display on our Web site," said Rich Johnson, a national contracts director who evaluates provider performance for Humana. Hospitals are raising objections now, he said, because the data have been made available to Humana members and the Tribune.

"We'll make adjustments; we want to be fair," Johnson said. But the company stands by the data, he said.

DENISE REMUS

Chief quality officer, BayCare Health System. BayCare operates St. Joseph's, South Florida Baptist, St. Anthony's, Morton Plant, Morton Plant North Bay, Mease Dunedin and Mease Countryside

"You've identified some issues, some of the challenges we face. Cost does vary a lot, cost isn't always correlated with quality, and it's difficult to measure quality. These are questions that we're all dealing with. … When we excluded [pediatric patients whose costs for cardiac catheterization are higher than adults], our costs came down. We believe if you were to look at the performance of hospitals in the BayCare Health System, [they] would come out at the top or near the top. And on costs, we believe we would rank among the top performers [if the data analysis adjusted to account for severity of illness]. We have fair costs for our services. We are committed to trying to provide more information to the public. We want to get fair, valid, reliable data to the public."

DEBRA McKELL

P

roduct line manager, HCA West Florida Division. HCA hospitals in the Bay area include Brandon Regional, South Bay, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, Community Hospital New Port Richey, Edward White, Largo Medical Center, Northside Hospital and St. Petersburg General

"We do not have access to validate the integrity of the data the Tampa Tribune has cited, because the sources used are private, not public, entities. Additionally, the cost data used reflects the experience of only one of many payors in the market. The wide cost ranges cited in all the comparisons provided to us by the Tampa Tribune appear unusual, and may not necessarily represent the experience of other payors. We do not have the methodology used for the 'performance' ratings, and when compared against some of the public data sources, there are disparities. Publishing a strict unit cost comparison does not take into account the complex concepts of health care financing and delivery, which may make the data invalid for most consumers."

TOMI GALIN

Vice president for corporate communications, IASIS Healthcare Corp., owner of Memorial, Town & Country and Palms of Pasadena hospitals

"Our Florida hospitals have earned numerous recognitions for quality care."

DON WELCH

Vice president and chief financial officer, Florida Hospital Zephyrhills

"This is a journey for all of us. …There is no perfect quantification of health care costs and quality. Nobody can say that Hospital A and Hospital B have comparable costs. There is no exact science yet."

KEVAN METCALFE

Chief administrative officer, Florida Hospital Zephyrhills

"When you look at the patients who come through, we have a higher influx of patients who have no insurance and no ability to pay, and therefore are not getting adequate prenatal care [in reference to the hospital's high cost and low performance rating on childbirth]. Their chance of complications is much higher, which drives down your outcome rating. We only have 16 percent of the bed capacity, but 42 percent of the indigent care [in Pasco County]."