Chan-Soon Shiong Medical Center at Windber (CSSMCW) recently received favorable marks on the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) report released in December 2020. CSSMCW showed rates no different than expected on all of the reported measures, while other regional hospitals showed rates significantly higher than expected. Both small and large facilities are allotted a volume and risk adjustment in order to make the comparison between facilities fair. For example, a hospital who treats sicker patients receives more adjustment than a hospital that does not.
Since October 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has measured rates of readmission within 30 days for patients with certain conditions. These conditions include heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hip or knee replacement. Hospitals with higher rates of readmission receive a monetary penalty. CSSMCW showed a reduction in penalty rate over the last 5 years, receiving zero penalty for the last 2 years. The hospital credits this to the fact that we provide robust patient-centered, multidisciplinary discharge planning in order to ensure our patients and their families have the teaching and support they need after being discharged from the hospital.
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In October 2014, CMS began reducing payments for hospitals that ranked in the worst performing 25% with respect to Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HAC). Hospital-acquired conditions are based on six quality measures also known as Patient Safety Indicators (PSI). These measures include blood infections caused by central lines, urinary tract infections caused by urinary catheters, surgical site infections, and infections with drug-resistant bacteria acquired in the hospital such as MRSA and CDIFF. While other regional hospitals have received a penalty in past years, CSSMCW has never received a penalty for HAC, meaning that we provide safe care to prevent infections for our patients in the hospital.
More About CMS Hospital-Acquired Conditions
Providing safe, quality care is important to CSSMCW and it shows. Hospital patients rate our care by responding to the Hospital Consumer’s Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys. These surveys are sent to admitted patients in Medicare-participating hospitals. The same set of questions is asked to patients via survey no matter which hospital they use. This gives CMS the ability to compare patients’ perceptions of the care they receive in hospitals. CSSMCW consistently ranks higher in Patient Experience than neighboring facilities. The most recent publicly reported data shows that 79% of our surveyed patients would definitely recommend the hospital and 76% gave the hospital a 9 or 10 on a scale of 0-10. These scores are better than other regional hospitals, as well as better than state and national averages.
The above measures contribute to the overall 4-star rating for CSSMCW designated by CMS.