Success story: How one hospital proved itself
This story of what one hospital did to protect itself contains a message: Arm yourself with as much data as possible to confront outside forces.
Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in Salinas, CA, used data it had gathered to challenge its state study on outcomes. The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development had stated that the facility was "significantly worse than expected" in certain clinical areas, among them cervical and lumbar discectomy outcomes. When the hospital received a preliminary copy of the report along with an invitation to comment, the hospital’s medical director determined the state data were old and non-severity adjusted. Upon closer review, he compared data in the report with data the hospital had gathered and discovered that the state’s report was weighted heavily with lengths of stay from a physician who retired shortly after the data period.
The hospital went ahead and tabulated information on the past two years that showed trends and improvements in both length of stay and charges. A few months later, the facility received a letter acknowledging the state’s data were flawed and would not be published.
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