COOKEVILLE – A health care trade publication recently ranked the top 100 community hospitals in the country, and Cookeville Regional Medical Center (CRMC) made the list.
Becker’s Hospital Review named CRMC a “100 Great Community Hospital” in June, the second straight year the medical center has made the four-year-old list, and only one of two hospitals in Tennessee to achieve the ranking this year. Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga also received mention.
Becker’s defines a community hospital as a facility with fewer than 550 beds and minimal teaching programs. The ranking considered a number of metrics, including quality of care, services provided and accolades received.
“I think the message is pretty clear that we do a very good job taking care of patients,” CRMC CEO Paul Korth said. “We provide very good, quality patient care and are delivering very positive outcomes in a patient-(centered) way.”
Rankings explained
Hospital rankings, like the “100 Great Community Hospital” list, are becoming more common – consumers increasingly comparison shop for medical services especially as payment is further linked to patient care.
Several hospital ranking services exist; Leapfrog, Consumer Reports and U.S News & World Report, respectively, all publish similar listings. U.S News, for example, gave CRMC an “average” score in areas like heart bypass surgery, hip and knee replacement; while Leapfrog graded CRMC a “C” this spring. (Editor’s note: Only three UC hospitals were graded by Leapfrog. Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville and River Park Hospital in McMinnville also received “C’s.”)
Korth, however, said the Becker’s list is among the more comprehensive. Hospitals named a “100 Best” were selected based on rankings and awards from iVantage Health Analytics, Truven Health Analytics, Healthgrades and CareChex.
In 2015, for the third year in a row, for example, Healthgrades ranked CRMC among America’s 100 Best Hospitals for cardiac care, coronary interventional and orthopedic surgery. The medical center is also an iVantage HealthStrong Top Hospital.
“They’re using a multitude of surveys and reports,” Korth said. “They’re pulling quality data, they’re pulling cost data, they’re also pulling patient satisfaction data to compare us.”
In its review, Becker’s made mention of CRMC’s growth over the years – initially established as a 15-bed private clinic in 1921, the medical center now has 247 beds, 150 physicians and more than 2,000 employees.
Korth said growth will continue – at least in terms of physicians. CRMC has added or will add specialists in internal medicine, orthopedics, neurology, nephrology and more.
“We continue to add physicians to keep up with the need in our market and our area,” he said.
“We’re excited about this recognition, and this is our second year,” Korth added. “It’s one thing to get on it, but it’s tougher sometimes to keep those high achievements.”
