CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Point Pleasant hospital has one of the nation's highest readmission rates for heart-failure patients, according to a new U.S. News & World Report ranking.
Pleasant Valley Hospital ranked sixth in the nation, with a 31.6 percent readmission rate for such patients, according to the magazine's August issue. It tied with East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey.
The national average for heart failure patients is 24.7 percent.
Pleasant Valley Hospital spokeswoman Amy Leach said the hospital uses readmission data in its quality-improvement process, and will take the recent ranking into consideration. She declined to comment further.
Holzer Medical Center in Gallipolis, Ohio -- about 10 miles from Point Pleasant -- also made the list, with a 32.1 percent readmission rate.
Hospital readmission is used as a standard to judge the quality of care, access to follow-up care, and unnecessary spending in a medical facility.
"It's fair to say, in West Virginia, we have an uneven discharge plan occurring in hospitals," said Perry Bryant, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. "It's highly fragmented, and frequently people are not talking to each other. As a result, patients fall through the cracks."
Communication, follow-up and coordination between doctors, hospital staff, nursing homes and the patient are essential to ensuring quality care while a person is in the hospital and when they leave, Bryant said.
The state also is generally unhealthy, said Tony Gregory, spokesman for the West Virginia Hospital Association.
"Some readmissions are simply unavoidable. This is compounded in West Virginia by the fact we do have an older and sicker population," Gregory said. "The number-one killer within the state's population is heart disease and cancer, linked to the high rate of smoking and use of smokeless tobacco products."
About 17 percent of the Mason County's population is age 65 or older, compared to the state average of 15.7 percent, according to 2008 U.S. Census data.
The county's obesity rate ranks third in West Virginia, at about 36 percent. Only Logan (45 percent) and Mingo (37 percent) counties have a higher proportion of obese residents, according to the most recent data available from the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
The county also has a 14.6 percent rate of heart attacks, angina or strokes, compared to the state average of 13.2 percent, DHHR data shows.
"There is always more to be done to make our heath-care system more efficient, and there are provisions [to address readmission rates] in the federal health reform package," Gregory said.
Under the health care overhaul, Medicare payments to hospitals with high readmission rates will be reduced starting in 2012.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Point Pleasant hospital has one of the nation's highest readmission rates for heart-failure patients, according to a new U.S. News & World Report ranking.
Pleasant Valley Hospital ranked sixth in the nation, with a 31.6 percent readmission rate for such patients, according to the magazine's August issue. It tied with East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey.
The national average for heart failure patients is 24.7 percent.
Pleasant Valley Hospital spokeswoman Amy Leach said the hospital uses readmission data in its quality-improvement process, and will take the recent ranking into consideration. She declined to comment further.
Holzer Medical Center in Gallipolis, Ohio -- about 10 miles from Point Pleasant -- also made the list, with a 32.1 percent readmission rate.
Hospital readmission is used as a standard to judge the quality of care, access to follow-up care, and unnecessary spending in a medical facility.
"It's fair to say, in West Virginia, we have an uneven discharge plan occurring in hospitals," said Perry Bryant, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. "It's highly fragmented, and frequently people are not talking to each other. As a result, patients fall through the cracks."
Communication, follow-up and coordination between doctors, hospital staff, nursing homes and the patient are essential to ensuring quality care while a person is in the hospital and when they leave, Bryant said.
The state also is generally unhealthy, said Tony Gregory, spokesman for the West Virginia Hospital Association.
"Some readmissions are simply unavoidable. This is compounded in West Virginia by the fact we do have an older and sicker population," Gregory said. "The number-one killer within the state's population is heart disease and cancer, linked to the high rate of smoking and use of smokeless tobacco products."
About 17 percent of the Mason County's population is age 65 or older, compared to the state average of 15.7 percent, according to 2008 U.S. Census data.
The county's obesity rate ranks third in West Virginia, at about 36 percent. Only Logan (45 percent) and Mingo (37 percent) counties have a higher proportion of obese residents, according to the most recent data available from the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
The county also has a 14.6 percent rate of heart attacks, angina or strokes, compared to the state average of 13.2 percent, DHHR data shows.
"There is always more to be done to make our heath-care system more efficient, and there are provisions [to address readmission rates] in the federal health reform package," Gregory said.
Under the health care overhaul, Medicare payments to hospitals with high readmission rates will be reduced starting in 2012.
The law will limit Medicare payments to a hospital for heart attack, pneumonia and heart failure patients who are readmitted within 30 days of their discharge.
Hospitals currently are not reimbursed for Medicare patients who are readmitted the same day they are discharged, unless it's for an unrelated reason.
Once in place, the largest payment reduction a hospital would see is about 1 percent the first year, 2 percent the second year and 3 percent the third year. The provision is expected to save about $7 billion over 10 years.
The Medicare reform targets coordination, collaboration and follow-up to "improve quality of care, because [for] patients that are readmitted for the same illness, it's not only expensive, it's unfair to the patient as well," Bryant of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care said.
Nationally, about 20 percent of Medicare patents that are hospitalized are readmitted within 30 days, according to a 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. About half of them do not see a doctor between their initial hospital stay and their trip back.
Patients are most commonly readmitted to the hospital after experiencing heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, psychosis, and gastrointestinal problems, according to the American Hospital Association.
Three West Virginia hospitals also were recognized in the August issue of U.S. News & World Report for their adherence to quality measures.
St. Mary's Medical Center, West Virginia University Hospital and Wheeling Hospital were listed for their "achievement measures" for treatment of heart failure and stroke.
Other hospitals listed for high readmission rates of heart failure patients are:
Magee General Hospital in Magee, Miss. and Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago: 32.4 percentBates County Memorial Hospital in Butler, Mo. and Georgiana Hospital in Georgiana, Ala.: 32.3 percentPerry Community Hospital in Linden, Tenn.: 32.1 percentKings County Hospital Center and Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, both in New York: 32 percentRussell County Medical Center in Lebanon, Va.: 31.9 percent.Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.
