Redbud Community Hospital gets an overall patient experience rating of POOR from CalHospitalCompare.org

(Please NOTE! Any information on the Internet that is subject to search engine bots is no longer secure information and is in the public domain. The above link does not take you to CalHospitalCompare.org’s website; it takes you to Google’s stored page. You may link to their page. When this was written the date their page was stored was August 16, 2007. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the page stating: For informational use only. Not intended to be relied on for medical diagnosis, treatment, advice, or endorsement of any provider. Confirm accuracy of data with provider.)

According to a news article on St. Helena Hospital’s Website
(http://www.sthelenahospital.org/news/article.php?id=2006-
01-24_shhredbudservicearea.html) Redbud Community hospital is a collaborative operation of St Helena Hospital and Redbud Community Hospital which are both members of the Adventist Health system that operates some twenty hospitals in the Western United States.

A quote from the news article is: “The communities we serve together in Lake County will benefit from improved coordination of care and from all members of our healthcare teams working collaboratively,” says JoAline Olson President and CEO of St. Helena Hospital. “By working more closely together, we will improve quality of care, clinical processes and access to care.”

Stop Right There!
JoAline Olson, what part of “denial of service” improves access to care? And if someone, under your watch and after your bluster, has been denied medical access, what does that make you JoAline Olson?

It is easy to sit in an ivory tower and spout flowery words, but saying it and doing it are hardly the same, as will become quite evident JoAline.

So who else is responsible for Redbud’s POOR Rating?

According to the same news article the new board replaces the St. Helena and Redbud governing boards.

The hospitals share the same service area in southern Lake County including the communities of Middletown, Hidden Valley, Cobb, Lower Lake, Kelseyville, Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks.

St. Helena Hospital and Redbud Community Hospital
Governing Board
2006

Alan Rice, Chair
Senior VP Adventist Health
Roseville, CA

Maynard LeBrun
Financial Advisor/Investment Specialist
Hidden Valley, CA

Jim Pederson, Vice Chair
President, N. Calif. Conference of SDA
Pleasant Hill, CA

Don Logan
Attorney
Napa, CA

JoAline Olson, Secretary
St. Helena Hospital President
St. Helena, CA

Malcolm Maxwell
Education Administration Retired
Angwin, CA

Barry Brown, MD
St. Helena Hospital Chief of Staff
St. Helena, CA

Richard Osborn
Pacific Union College President
Angwin, CA

Carrie Domogalla
Not for Profit Consultant
Calistoga, CA

Fred Poucher, Jr.
Engineer Retired
Redbud Community Health District Member
Hidden Valley, CA

Steve Herber, MD
St. Helena, CA

Marc Shapiro, MD
Clearlake, CA

John Jacobson, MD
St. Helena, CA

George Sheldon
Business Entrepreneur
Deer Park, CA

Burton Jernigan
Insurance Broker
Clearlake, CA

Steve Shepper, MD
Redbud Community Hospital Chief of Staff
Clearlake, CA

Rick Jones
Business Marketing
Calistoga, CA



Before I go on

First I want to recap a few points.

In previous comments, one that is extremely important to everyone living in the area is: South Lake County Fire Protection District is required to take you to Redbud Community Hospital during an emergency ambulance transport unless they get permission to take you somewhere else.

To me, in a free country, that is inconceivable. After what I have learned, I never want to set foot in Redbud again, yet I could find myself in a situation where my freedom of choice does not exist.

Second, 90,000 plus people are killed every year thru medical errors, so I want to go some place where my odds of becoming one of those ninety thousand are small.

Third, the Middletown Medical Clinic is a “feeder clinic” for Adventist Health and specifically Redbud Community Hospital.

Now to the conclusion.

The California HealthCare Foundation is a partnership between the University of California; San Francisco and California Hospital Assessment Reporting Taskforce (CHART)

Together, they have launched a new website called: “CalHospitalCompare.org”

This is from their press release: “March 06, 2007
A new Web site launched today, CalHospitalCompare.org, allows Californians to compare the performance of more than 200 hospitals statewide on a variety of useful quality measures from maternity services to cardiac treatment.”

CalHospitalCompare.org has rated Redbud Community Hospital with an overall rating of POOR while giving Sutter Lakeside an overall rating of SUPERIOR.

The only rating below POOR is NOT RATED and there is no rating above SUPERIOR.

The ratings available are: SUPERIOR, ABOVE AVERAGE, AVERAGE, BELOW AVERAGE, POOR and NOT RATED

So Adventist Health, St Helena Hospital, Redbud Community Hospital and Middletown Medical Clinic, you should be ashamed. You should apologize to the people who you force through your facilities where they are subjected to standards that are not even AVERAGE.

Here are some further Redbud Hospital treatment ratings that were listed by CalHospitalCompare.org.

Heart Failure – POOR
Overall Patient Experience – POOR
Medical Patient Experience – POOR
Surgical Patient Experience – Below Average

I think I have made my point;

I’ve said before it was “all about money and don’t let your health care get in the way” and with a trail of price gouging and poor treatment ratings I think I’m right. I’m just so sorry that in the past I have allowed loved ones to be treated at Redbud Community Hospital and too by those Physicians who must have thought it was “okay”.

In conclusion

Since we pay to operate South Lake County Fire Protection District I think pressure on the Board of Directors to protect us from emergency treatment that is below average and that may threaten our lives is essential.

It is unforgivable to force us into medical treatment that is below the standard of average of California rated hospitals and that means transporting us to Redbud Community Hospital.

ALSO READ: Adventist Health, Redbud Community Hospital, Middletown Medical Clinic…

Does Adventist Health have a pattern of price gouging?

© Bill Wink September 18, 2007
Reprinted with permission