Some Atlanta hospitals lag in federal report card

But ‘simple star ranking’ is criticized.

Want five-star hospital care? You’ll have to look outside metro Atlanta, according to a new federal report.

No local hospitals earned a perfect score on the first-of-itskind federal assessment of health care quality at hospitals across the nation. To explore how metro Atlanta and North Georgia hospitals compare on a variety of factors like infections, hip and knee surgery, labor and delivery and ER wait times go to: http://hospitals.myajc.com/

The grading system, released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, found many local hospitals fell

short in a one- to five-star rating system. The best performers: Emory University Hospital on Clifton Road and Gwinnett Medical Center. Each scored four stars.

Emory University Hospital exceeded the national average on four key measures, lagging on one: timeliness of care. Gwinnett Medical Center surpassed three standards, but fell short on timeliness of care and patient experience.

Hospitals on the low end of the spectrum included Grady Memorial Hospital, WellStar Atlanta Medical Center and Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge. The report gave each one star.

The report concluded those hospitals trailed the national average in at least three categories: readmissions, patient experience and timeliness of care.

Some health officials said the report was misleading and overlooked different roles hospitals play in serving the public. Earlier this year, the report’s release was delayed as federal officials worked to allay hospitals’ concerns about the report card.

The report focused on 3,617 hospitals — 15 within 25 miles of downtown Atlanta. They were assessed on 64 measures, including death, infection rates and patient reviews.

Nationally, only 102 got the top rating. Among them were two Georgia hospitals outside metro Atlanta: Gordon Hospital in Calhoun and Northside Medical in Columbus.

In the metro area, six hospitals got three stars: Emory University Hospital Midtown, Piedmont Hospital, Northside Hospital, Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, WellStar Kennestone Hospital and WellStar Douglas Hospital.

Receiving two stars: DeKalb Medical Center, Southern Regional Medical Center, DeKalb Medical Center at Hillandale and WellStar Cobb Hospital.

The report did not rate the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

Health care professionals opposed the report’s release, arguing that the ratings make places that treat the toughest cases look bad. Medicare released it anyway. Consumers, they argued, need a way to easily gauge hospital quality.

The report is not an accurate portrayal of “great strides” at Grady, said Robert Jansen, Grady Health System’s chief medical officer and quality control officer.

“The ratings do not account for the many socioeconomic factors that pose obstacles to sustained patient health,” Jansen said in an emailed statement.

In a statement, DeKalb Medical Center spokeswoman Margaret Harrison said such tools should “provide apples-to-apples comparisons, and it is unclear” whether the new system does that.

Emory Healthcare also questioned the report, despite Emory University Hospital’s four-star rating.

The ratings “are potentially misleading and confusing to patients and other consumers,” Emory spokeswoman Janet Christenbury said in a prepared statement. “The methodology behind the ratings does not take into account differences in patient populations and the complexity of conditions certain hospitals treat . ... Comparisons among hospitals caring for very different types of patients and sicker patients can be highly misleading if not evaluated properly.”

A “one-size-fits-all approach” report doesn’t serve the public, added Earl V. Rogers, president of the Georgia Hospital Association.

“Rating overall hospital care is far more complex than a simple star rating and a one-size-fitsall approach,” he wrote, “which unfairly penalizes teaching hospitals and those hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of uninsured patients.”