The D.C. health system, which includes the Georgetown University Hospital, has been ranked last nationally in both hospital quality and customer satisfaction by a health care insurance services company, despite the positive reputation of many of the hospitals in the area.
In addition, the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area ranked 40th among the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the United States in hospital quality, and 42nd in customer satisfaction, according to the Washington Business Journal.
The report was compiled using rankings from the Hospital Quality Alliance’ Hospital Compare All Payer Database and the Hospital Consumer Assessment in overall care, cardiac care, major cardiac surgery, orthopedic care, major orthopedic surgery, neurological care, major neuro-surgery, cancer care and pulmonary care.
The Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area studied in the survey ranked poorly across the board, ranking lower than 30th place in seven out of the eight rankings. The only exception was a 19th spot in neurological care.
Ratings are much higher for Georgetown University Hospital, however. U.S. News & World Report ranks the GU Hospital as 32nd out of 1,472 in the nation for adult gynecology.
The hospital was also ranked highly by customers, with 69 percent of patients giving the hospital the highest or a very high ranking, and only 7 percent giving it a low ranking, according to U.S. News and World Report. Seventy-five percent of patients would definitely recommend the hospital to family and friends, and only 4 percent probably or definitely would not, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
Some possible solutions to improving the D.C. medical system involve upgrading technology, according to the Washington Business Journal. D.C. was rated 49th among U.S. states in the use of computerized medical records, which the Washington Business Journal attributed to medical professionals in the region working in small groups rather than large hospitals.
The journal argued that the costs of installing electronic medical records in such clusters would be extremely difficult due to a loss of efficiency and funds during the installation of technology.
The rankings proved worrisome to some who get treatment at area hospitals.
“[Last in the nation] is a scary number,” Maura Welch (SFS ’11) said. “I’d really like to find out if any hospitals in the area are outliers from that ranking, because that’s really scary.”
Others did not see the ranking as directly affecting their medical status, however.
“I go home for all of my medical procedures anyway,” Melanie Pitkin (SFS ’11) said.
The rankings were compiled by CareChex, a company that ranks hospitals based on health care quality. CareChex is part of Delta Group, the largest private health care information service in the United States, according to CareChex’s website.
The Medical Center’s Communications Office was unavailable for comment.
