‘A’ for South Coast Medical

Mike Swanson

PacifiCare’s first Quality Index profile of more than 200 state

hospitals awarded South Coast Medical Center an overall A grade, but

the good news is dampened somewhat because the report isn’t endorsed

by the California Healthcare Assn.

The profile, released early this month, evaluates hospitals in its

system using 55 measures designed to pinpoint flaws and strengths

that help patients and doctors determine which facilities best suit

their needs.

“More transparency is needed in hospitals as health care costs

keep going up,” said Tyler Mason, vice president of public relations

for PacifiCare Health Systems. “Especially in Orange County, where

patients have so many options for health care, they deserve to know

as much as possible about the hospitals they have to choose from.”

A press release issued by the California Healthcare Assn. calls

the profile “a good example of a well-intentioned but disjointed

effort at measuring quality of care.

“PacifiCare has translated complex data from multiple sources into

percentile rankings -- and then letter grades. This approach doesn’t

employ the rigors of a statistically derived analysis.”

The Healthcare Assn. also notes that a variety of hospital report

cards are available on the Web, but none are nationally accepted.

South Coast Medical Center’s Director of Marketing Maggie Baumann

said that while the hospital adamantly backs the California

Healthcare Assn.’s opinions, a good report card is difficult to frown

upon.

“It serves as an example of the care we’ve been taking for a long

time now,” she said. “It’s like when you’re taking a class and doing

your homework every night, you get rewarded when the test comes. We

were very pleased with the results.”

With A’s in overall quality, appropriate care and patient

satisfaction, along with B’s in patient safety and utilization, the

hospital scored one of the highest grade point averages in Orange

County, at 3.6.

The California Healthcare Assn. and its regional associations

support an initiative led by the American Hospital Assn. to establish

“national quality standards on which all hospitals can be measured.”

In the meantime, however, PacifiCare’s Quality Index profile is an

easy-to-read, broad gauge of local hospitals that’s available to the

public now. A PacifiCare press release recognizes its relatively

cursory approach with confidence.

“Measuring hospitals on only four to 10 indicators does not give

consumers enough information on total hospital performance,” it says.

“Instead, we chose to measure the most common conditions and

procedures impacting patients.”

The profile grades areas including: “appropriate care,” which

measures the avoidance of hospital-based complications not directly

related to the primary reason for admission; “patient safety,” which

measures the hospitals’ mortality rates; “patient satisfaction,”

which measures arrive time through patient surveys; and

“utilization,” which measures how well hospitals minimized a

patient’s stay.

While the media hasn’t appeared interested in the profile, Mason

said, investors and members have expressed early approval.

“When we released [the profile] on medical groups like Bristol

Park, the media was all over it, and investors and members were

pretty quiet,” Mason said. “Now it’s the opposite. It’s getting out

there, but there’s a lot going on right now both in California and

overseas that probably isn’t helping its publicity.”

The Quality Index profile is available to the public online at

www.pacificare.com, and copies can be requested through PacifiCare’s

customer service department by calling (800) 624-8822.