Investor-owned hospitals behind on quality

Investor-owned hospitals are falling a bit behind the national average on quality ratings, according to a new analysis of the second set of Hospital Compare data. The analysis, which covers the period from March 2007 to 2008, was performed by stock analyst Gary Lieberman of the Stanford Group Co.

To prepare his analysis, Lieberman and his team took scores from the 10 questions asked of patients by the Hospital Compare survey to generate an average for each hospital. He then developed company scores based on facility averages, weighted by how many beds were in each facility. The scores ranged from one to three points.

According to the analysis, LifePoint Hospitals, with 2.59 points, was the only company that scored above the national average of 2.57 points. Hospitals owned by Community Health Systems before it picked up Triad Hospitals in 2007 came in at 2.56 points, former Triad hospitals and Tenet Healthcare came in at 2.52 points, Health Management Associates at 2.47 points, HCA at 2.42 points and Universal Health Services at 2.35 points.

To learn more about the study:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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