Three Baystate Hospitals Selected Among America’s Most Socially Responsible Hospitals

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health announced that Baystate Wing Hospital, Baystate Noble Hospital, and Baystate Franklin Medical Center have been nationally recognized by Lown Institute Hospitals Index for their social responsibility, including metrics of health equity and value of care as well as patient outcomes. The Lown Hospital Index is a report that evaluates more than 2,700 acute care hospitals and 800 critical access hospitals nationwide.

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index is the first ranking to evaluate hospitals on their social responsibility, focusing on the full scope of what hospitals do as care providers, employers, and community partners. The ranking highlights those hospitals that provide exceptional, high-value patient care to all who need it in their community.

Lown used publicly available data from CMS and the IRS, among other sources, for its analysis with the ratings based on:

• Equity, including pay equity (the difference in compensation of hospital executives compared to healthcare workers without advanced degrees), community benefit (the extent of hospital investment in free care and community health), and inclusivity (the extent to which patients being served are demographically similar to those in the surrounding community);

• Value, including avoiding overuse (avoidance of inappropriate tests and procedures that offer little or no clinical benefit) and cost efficiency (risk-adjusted clinical outcomes over cost per patient adjusted for local cost of living and labor costs); and

• Outcomes, including clinical outcomes (patient mortality and readmission rates over various periods of time), patient safety (avoidance of preventable patient safety errors), and patient satisfaction (aspects of the hospital experience as reported by patients).

Baystate Wing Hospital was ranked first in Massachusetts for the second year in a row and also recognized with an Honor Roll designation for a fourth year in a row with ‘straight A’s’ on equity, value, and outcomes. Baystate Noble Hospital ranked second in Massachusetts and also earned ‘straight A’s’ on equity, value, and outcomes and was included in the Honor Roll for acute care hospitals. Baystate Franklin Medical Center ranked sixth in Massachusetts, reflecting an ‘A’ in performance in health equity and value.