Mercy Medical Center Scores High in Two National Hospital Rankings

SPRINGFIELD — Mercy Medical Center has been ranked in U.S. News Media & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings, available online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals. The rankings, annually published by U.S. News for the past 22 years, are also featured in the U.S. News Best Hospitals guidebook, which went on sale Aug. 30.

The latest rankings showcase 720 hospitals out of about 5,000 hospitals nationwide. Each is ranked among the country’s top hospitals in at least one medical specialty. Mercy ranked as “high-performing in urology.”

“At Mercy Medical Center, we continuously strive for clinical excellence through the delivery of high-quality care. U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of Mercy Medical Center among the nation’s best hospitals provides additional validation of our team’s success in providing the highest quality of patient care,” said Daniel Moen, president and CEO of the Sisters of Providence Health System.

“Mercy Medical Center’s recognition as ‘high-performing’ in urology is due in large part to the leadership of Urology Chief Dr. David Kelley and the expertise of our entire team of urologists, who consistently demonstrate their knowledge of the most recent advances in the diagnostics and treatment of urologic disorders,” said Dr. Scott Wolf, vice president of Medical Affairs and chief medical officer of Mercy Medical Center. “Their use of the most advanced, minimally invasive surgical tools and techniques, such as Mercy’s da Vinci Surgical System, also reflects their commitment to keeping pace with the evolution of technology.”

The core mission of Best Hospitals is to help guide patients who need an especially high level of care because of a difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. “These are referral centers where other hospitals send their sickest patients,” said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. “Hospitals like these are the ones you or those close to you should consider when the stakes are high.”

In other news, Mercy Medical Center has once again been recognized as a Top100 Community Value Hospital by Cleverley + Associates of Columbus, Ohio, a leading health care financial consulting firm specializing in operational benchmarking and performance-enhancement strategies. Mercy’s designation is noted in the independent organization’s recent publication, State of the Hospital Industry — 2011 Edition.

“The concept of health care ‘value’ has become increasingly important to payers, employers, and individuals, not just here in Massachusetts, but also across the country,” said Moen. “Mercy Medical Center’s reputation for providing high-quality care at a reasonable cost has again been independently validated by the presentation of both the Community Value 100 and Community Value Five Star Awards. At Mercy Medical Center, we believe that providing high-quality care is the right thing to do for our patients. As experts in medical economics have demonstrated, high-quality care actually costs less.”

Written by Dr. William Cleverley, a noted expert in health care finance, State of the Hospital Industry reports selected measures of hospital financial performance and discusses the critical factors that lie behind them. The publication focuses on the U.S. acute-care hospital industry over a three-year period (2007-09).

The 2011 State of the Hospital Industry reports an exclusive measure developed by Cleverley + Associates: the Community Value Index (CVI). The CVI is a proprietary index created to offer a measure of the value that a hospital provides to its community. The book outlines the data used to calculate the CVI as well as provides a list of the Top 100 and all Five-Star (top-quintile) hospitals.

“These are hospitals we call ‘high performers’; they are fully capable of giving most patients first-rate care, even if they have serious conditions or need demanding procedures,” Comarow said. Hard numbers stand behind the rankings in most specialties — death rates, patient safety, procedure volume, and other objective data. Responses to a national survey, in which physicians were asked to name hospitals they consider best in their specialty for the toughest cases, also were factored in.