The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) today released The Health of Rhode Island's Hospitals (2008), which details the financial performance of Rhode Island's 13 hospitals from 2005 to 2008. While the report found Rhode Island hospitals to be more profitable than other hospitals in the Northeast in 2007, local hospitals' financial performance declined in 2008. Overall, Rhode Island hospitals experienced a 12% loss in the net worth in 2008 which was mainly attributable to losses in their investments, not it declines of patient revenue. Patient revenue increased 6% from 2007 to 2008.
The report compares the state's hospitals to other hospitals in the Northeast and to a group of the highest-performing hospitals in the country. It also ranks Rhode Island's individual facilities based on 12 separate measures over four years. It determined that Newport Hospital, Bradley Hospital, and Butler Hospital, respectively, to be the state's top-performing hospitals. Finally, the report evaluates the financial performance of the two hospital systems (Lifespan and Care New England) as compared to the independent hospitals. The report shows that the network hospitals performed significantly better than the independent hospitals on most measures.
"These hospitals play a critical role in Rhode Island's healthcare system and have a significant impact on local economies," said Director of Health David R. Gifford, MD, MPH. "This report underscores the challenges that all of the hospitals are facing in maintaining their financial health in the current economy. In addition, we must continually evaluate how the independent community hospitals fit into Rhode Island's broader healthcare system."
The report is available on HEALTH's website at http://www.health.ri.gov/publications/reports/HealthOfHospitals.pdf