St. Helena and Redbud Community Hospitals - How do you explain the difference?

Do you remember the anti-smoking TV commercials that depicted the supposedly evil tobacco company Board of Directors sitting around plotting against the public?

It might show them presenting an idea of how to keep the public addicted and them all cackling at their combined evilness?

Well that is how I view the Governing Board of Adventist Health, St. Helena Hospital and Redbud Community Hospital except they are scheming about how they can keep their little secrets secret.

How are they going to protect their revenue stream, act Christian like and block access to CalHospitalCompare.org’s information?

Hmm… a dilemma indeed.

CalHospitalCompare.org

Is an attempt to add some transparency to hospitals that serve the citizens of California.

Kristen Gerencher wrote in MarketWatch: The site presents data on how well participating local hospitals follow best-practice guidelines on specific conditions such as maternity, pneumonia and heart disease.

The research is drawn from 210 participating California hospitals, representing 70% of patients that were discharged last year. The information will be updated every three months and expanded to include performance measures in areas such as intensive care, newborn care and pediatric care.

In the same article during an interview with R. Adams Dudley, associate professor of medicine and health policy at University of California-San Francisco, Kristen writes: Dudley stated: “To get that information [previously], you'd have to have a whole lot of time, have to be computer-savvy, probably would have to have gone to medical school and understand a lot about statistics as well. There's data here that isn't anywhere else and that no one else has ever collected.”

In other words, prior to this new site, we California consumers would have had to search widely to find the facts that are most relevant to us.

In CaliforniaHealthline, which is published by California HealthCare Foundation, Maribeth Shannon, a program director for CHCF noted: “the site [CalHospitalCompare.org] is not intended only for consumers but also for hospital board members, the fundraising community and experts.” She added: “that the site could have an impact if hospitals' board members are embarrassed by their facilities' poor performance ratings.”

In Lake County Health Scene, Summer 2007, published by Adventist Health, St. Helena Hospital and Redbud Community Hospital, they wrote: “California Hospital Compare is intended to serve as a model for establishing standardized measurements of hospital performance, which are important not only for consumers selecting hospitals, but also for the hospitals themselves to use as benchmarks for quality improvement,” says Mark Smith, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation.

They also quote JoAline Olson, President and CEO of St. Helena Hospital, in the publication. Quote: “I am thrilled to see how well St. Helena Hospital compares with other hospitals in the North Bay… Our quality initiatives are paying off . We are dedicated to continuous quality improvement. We work hard at it.” End quote.

JoAline Olson also serves on the Governing Board of the two hospitals and according to an on-line press release is also the CEO of the Napa/Lake Service Region. And according to the same press release Carrie Luyster, President and CEO of Redbud, reports to Olson.

But no where did I find any mention of Redbud Community’s overall POOR patient experience rating and what they are doing about it, so are they embarrassed?

St. Helena Hospital – Redbud Community Hospital

This is the kind of information available at CalHospitalCompare.org
Heart Attack
(information retrieved 9-2007 Google cache)
St. Helena Hospital
CalHospitalCompare rating - Superior
Aspirin on arrival 100%
Aspirin on departure 100%
Beta blocker on arrival 100%
Beta blocker at discharge 97%

Redbud Community Hospital
CalHospitalCompare rating – to few cases to rate
Aspirin on arrival 33%
Aspirin on departure 50%
Beta blocker on arrival – N/A
Beta blocker at discharge 50%

Two hospitals, both part of the Adventist Health system, both run by the same Governing Board and CalHospitalCompare.org posts a rating for one hospital Superior and the other Poor.

Makes you wonder how that can be?

St Helena Hospital is the hospital with the Superior overall patient experience rating.

Redbud Community Hospital is the hospital with the Poor overall patient experience rating.

St Helena Hospital is located in the affluent and world famous Napa Valley.

Redbud Community Hospital is located in Clearlake, Lake County, CA.

St. Helena Hospital has a relatively new Emergency Services Department.

Redbud has promised the community one for some years now.

I know why Redbud Community Hospital has an overall patient experience rating of POOR.

Is it because JoAline Olson and the Governing Board of Redbud Community Hospital are only capable of producing a POOR rating?

Of course not.

Because St. Helena Hospital is Superior and that rating is theirs too.

So what’s the problem?

Maybe it’s because the boss lady at the Middletown Medical Clinic can decide who can have access to medical care and who can’t.

Maybe it’s because they lie.

Maybe it’s because they are mean spirited.

Maybe it’s because the girl (I think she was a nurse) in the ER at Redbud slops around with her shoes untied wearing blue jeans.

Maybe it’s because very few employees of Redbud look like medical professionals and plenty look like janitors.

Maybe it’s because I watched a nurse drop an unprotected I.V. needle on the floor, pick it up and just put it in the tube in the patients arm without cleaning it.

Maybe it’s because even I know enough to administer aspirin.

Maybe it’s because they are a supposed Christian organization and they feel superior to others.

Maybe it’s because they aren’t humble.

Maybe it’s because it seems they are about money and not about health care forcing patients to pay for office visits beyond what should have been charged.

Maybe it’s because they provide less for those who need it more.

Maybe it’s because they are so arrogant they don’t listen.

And maybe it’s all of these and more.

I guess these could add up to a POOR patient experience rating, huh JoAline?

© Bill Wink October 4, 2007
Reprinted with permission