As health workers were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear. More
“Hospitals are members of their communities, and when we think about them and when we try to understand what their performance is like, we wanted to be able to think about ways we might measure their participation or engagement ... in the community,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, Lown’s president and a cardiologist. “With the (coronavirus) pandemic, I think more than ever the idea that hospitals need to be real partners with their communities has become much clearer to a lot of people.” More
It's the ranking and measuring of particular metrics that the Lown Institute uses to differentiate its rankings from other, similar top hospitals lists. Value of care, civic leadership, and patient outcomes including safety and mortality rates are all factored into an aggregate score, with individual scores broken down by each hospital. More
"What we are showing isn't news — there is a certain amount of inequity in healthcare," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. "But what we have tried to do is paint this picture in a way that allows everyone to see it and all of us to think about how to do things better." More
The University of Colorado Hospital Authority, based in Aurora, ranks among the top 20 U.S. hospitals, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. More
A new ranking system has found that some hospitals rated “best” by the annual US News and World Report are failing on criteria that is ignored by the report. More
“There are some very fine hospitals that feel forced to focus on profitable elective procedures to stay in business,” Saini explained. “This can lead to business decisions that make them look good on outcomes like mortality, but at the expense of equity. The data show that gaps between a hospital’s clinical results and its performance in the community are sometimes very wide, which can contribute to disparities in care and put certain communities at risk.” More
"At a time when communities are relying on them like never before, hospitals must rethink what it means to be great," Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said in a press release. "COVID-19 highlights how hospitals are essential community partners for anyone in need. To be great, however, a hospital cannot only provide care that's high in quality. It must also deliver value and advance equality. Our index is designed to help them do just that." More
“Hospitals who do well with care, do not do well with civic engagement and equity,” said Brownlee, a former health care reporter for US News and World Report and Discover Magazine, and said she has been thinking about breaking down this type of data on hospitals for the better part of a decade. “If a hospital is good on inclusivity, then it means you are working harder to care for lower income people and people of color.” More
Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital System and Harris Health System are best in class for clinical outcomes and addressing racial and income disparities in health care, according to a report released Tuesday. More