A national group has deemed 13 rural hospitals to be the best in the country.
Of the 13, five are in Maine.
“Maine has done something that’s really amazing,” said Missy Danforth, senior director for hospital ratings for the Leapfrog Group, a Washington D.C.-based organization that tracks health care safety, quality and value and uses that information to name the best hospitals in the country each year.
The five rural Maine hospitals recognized for 2012 are: Calais Regional Hospital, Inland Hospital in Waterville, Mount Desert Island Hospital Organization, Rumford Hospital and Sebasticook Valley Health.
Maine is the only state to have more than one rural hospital on the list. The other hospitals are in Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee.
To make the list, a hospital must have completed a Leapfrog survey and must have received high scores in safety, quality and use of resources.
“It’s fabulous. I think it shows the attention that hospitals in the state of Maine pay to the outlying areas that they serve,” said Randall Dustin, who spoke for Central Maine Healthcare, which includes Rumford Hospital and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. “Rumford, they’re ecstatic about this. They think it’s tremendous. The health care environment right now is tough, so something like this just buoys everybody’s spirits.”
He said the recognition represents a long-term effort by Rumford Hospital to improve quality and care.
Although two Maine hospitals made the list together in past years, this is the first time five have. Leapfrog largely credits the Maine Health Management Coalition, a Portland-based nonprofit group of employers, hospitals, insurers and doctors dedicated to improving health care, because that group has pushed hospitals to complete Leapfrog’s survey and publicly report their data.
About 1,200 hospitals nationwide completed the most recent Leapfrog survey. In Maine, all eligible hospitals completed it, a compliance rate unheard of in the rest of the country.
That public reporting means employers and patients can see how good a hospital is. The better a hospital, the more likely those employers are to put that hospital in its preferred provider network for insurance and the more likely patients are to use it.
Hospitals make more money when more people use them, so hospitals feel the pressure to report — and then feel the pressure to improve their scores.
“This is really an accomplishment that benefits everybody,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of the Maine Health Management Coalition. “We really need to recognize how important this is to patients and what an achievement it is by the hospitals. This is a really big deal.”
The Leapfrog Group on Tuesday also named its top urban hospitals. Sixty-seven hospitals made that list, including two in Maine — Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.
This is the first time CMMC and Pen Bay have been named top urban hospitals by Leapfrog. Last week, they also received grades of “A” in Leapfrog’s new ratings of hospital safety efforts — a requirement before a hospital can be considered for a top urban hospital.
“This is a real morale builder for everybody here,” CMMC spokesman Randall Dustin said. “It’s something that has been coming up here in discussions now for years. To see things come to fruition like this, it’s huge.”
Sebasticook Valley Hospital????? This has got to be one of the worst hospitals in the state. Give me a break. I wonder how much money they paid for this good report. They can’t keep doctors and the ones they have now are traveling docs.
It’s mighty easy to post a gripe on a message board, but the fact is that having a decent local hospital is a point of civic pride and benefit for any small town in this country, and only a buffoon would fail to appreciate that. Sebasticook Valley Hospital has grown from a local seed planted by Pittsfield community leaders 50 years ago into a very respectable facility servicing the region. I’m sure you’d be singing a different tune if you ever really needed a hospital in an emergency and the closest was 30 or more miles away!
I actually have had experiences at this hospital and my family have as well. And yes, now we go the extra 40 miles, if we have to to avoid SVH.
It’s about the worst band aid station. It was way back when and it isn’t much better.
If I have to go to the ER or take someone to an ER, they go to Waterville.
You obviously know absolutely nothing about the Leapfrog organization or you would not be suggesting that Sebasticook Valley Hospital could have manipulated the results. Do yourself a favor and do a little research before making ill-informed comments.
I can vouch for Inland Hospital in Waterville. I had emergency hip surgery there a few years ago. The care I received was top notch and the food was chef quality.What hospital could you order a lobster roll on a toasted bun that was delicious? I got one at Inland Hospital.
Glad to see Franklin Memorial is not on this list.
Congrats MDI Hospital!
This is great news for Maine. A ton of work is being done in the State for Patient safety and Patient engagement. My only complaint is that it is still very difficult to get specific information on a Hospital’s or doctor’s complication rates (ie, surgical site infections, blood clots, post op bleeding, surgical slips that result in harm, falls, failure to rescue, etc). The leapfrog report is very important and it is a great start to meaningful disclosure of patient safety events of all kinds. I am very proud of my State’s standing in this report. But, it is still hard to get the needed detailed information to make an informed choice if facing a hospital admission for specialty care or surgery.
Calais Hospital is awesome!!!!!!
I guess everyone has their opinion and I have been very pleased with my dealings with Sebasticook Valley Hospital. Emergency surgery one time and never any long wait for blood work etc.
In what universe is Rockport urban?
Ever been to Yellow Pine Idaho?
Good job. How is the Governor going to put the spin on this that Maine is a bunch of losers?
Just because he is a big loser, he thinks everyone else is. Crooks think everyone else is a crook…same line of thinking with that dope
Even though they’re not on the list, I highly recommend Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth. My father, who passed away from lung cancer in April, received top-notch quality healthcare from them for the last few years of his life…far superior, I might add, to the care he had received in Bangor-area hospitals.
Congratulations to the five rural Maine hospitals, their administration,staff and volunteers . Your communities should be rightly proud of you. Thank you!
I’m happy Maine has so many of the best hospitals, BUT if Calais Regional Hospital gets top honors, I pity the folks who are beneath this level.
As a consumer of hospital services, I find Calais lacking in several areas. I find the Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth to be FAR superior.
It is fair to say that every single Hospital in Maine has some issues with patient safety. No Hospital will ever be 100% safe, even though it is our expectation as patients for them to be so. Every human being is different, and so are their health issues and risk factors. Some Hospitals will do better than others, just as some patients will do better than others. But, each and every Mainer should be proud that Leapfrog found that 5 of the top 13 rural hospitals NATIONWIDE are right here in Maine. I work with the Critical Access Hospitals Patient Safety Collaborative, and I know the sincerity of these facilities, to do better and provide high quality and safe patient care. We have to applaud the efforts of these small underfunded facilities and recognize their achievements.
“To make the list, a hospital must have completed a Leapfrog survey and must have received high scores in safety, quality and use of resources.” All this shows is that 5 hospitals in Maine took the survey. It really doesn’t indicate they are better than other hospitals, just that they filled out the survey and sent it back. Perhaps other hospitals were too busy taking care of patients to fill out Leapfrog’s paperwork.