BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — A stellar report just out from the Department of Health and Human Services names Boca Raton Regional Hospital as one of the best when it comes to getting it right the first time. Quite simply: Boca Regional has a very low rate of return, as patients being treated for serious conditions normally do not have to return to the hospital for emergency care.
According to the hospital:
In its most recent analysis of Medicare data, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cited Boca Raton Regional Hospital as one of 10 institutions in the nation to have better than expected readmission rates for patients being treated for heart attack, heart failure and community-acquired pneumonia. One percent of the 4,000 hospitals studied bettered the average for heart attack and pneumonia cases and two percent were labeled as better than average in heart failure. Only one quarter of one percent of hospitals were identified like Boca Regional as performing at better than expected across all three categories.
Readmissions, which are characterized as a patient having to be placed back in the hospital for any cause within 30 days of original discharge, cost Medicare around $18 billion annually in inpatient spending. Nearly 10 million Medicare patients are affected – a rate of one in five.
“This is exceedingly good news for our Hospital and our community, given its Medicare population,” said Charles Posternack, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Boca Regional. “Nearly 70 percent of our inpatients are Medicare beneficiaries.”
Two percent of hospitals reviewed performed at worse than expected readmissions for heart attack patients; four percent as having worse than expected rates for heart failure and three percent worse than expected for pneumonia cases. The study can be viewed at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
“We are most gratified to see Boca Regional perform at this level,” said Jerry Fedele, President and CEO at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “It is strong testimony to the emphasis our physicians and nurses place on quality patient care and the attention they give to the processes and procedures we utilize to ensure that it is the best it can be.”
