Chester County Hospital in West Chester, PA has been named one of the 100 Top Hospitals by IBM Watson Health (formerly known as Truven Analytics).
Chester County Hospital is the only health care facility in Chester County, PA to be rated in the top 100 nationwide. The organization recognized just seven Pennsylvania hospitals.
“The fact that we are the only hospital in the county to receive this designation shows that Chester County Hospital is an elite destination for health care,” said Michael J. Duncan, President and CEO.
The IBM Watson Health Award designates the hospital as a high-performing community health care provider, according to a press release issued by the organization.
“Being named one of the top 100 hospitals nationwide says a lot about the quality of our staff at Chester County Hospital and the work they do to provide excellent patient-centered care to our community here in Chester County, PA,” Duncan added.
According to Michael Barber, COO, Chester County Hospital is always looking to improve.
“We look at the core measures we want to improve, or see if there is something new we want to focus on. We are constantly looking at and setting our score card each year and strive to meet and add new things each year,” he said. “This designation recognizes the fact we have superior quality outcomes across many patient conditions and procedures. We have been consistent for many years."
“It is a point of pride for our staff,” said Kathy Gorman, Senior Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Marketing at Chester County Hospital.
“We don’t apply for this designation; the agency is pulling from publicly reported data that we report on a regular basis. Once they pull that information and we meet the criteria, then we are notified,” Barber said, adding that while the hospital doesn’t prepare for the designations, “we’re always preparing to provide the best quality. We always have to be ready for someone to look at the data.”
The Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals study ranks health care facilities based on five-year performance using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data. For two consecutive years, CMS has awarded Chester County Hospital a five-star rating — the highest possible score. For the latest study, researchers evaluated 2,740 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals.
As part of the Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals designation, Chester County Hospital earned a positive rating for significantly improving 30-day readmission rates, lowering the mortality index, having a shorter average length of stay, and keeping inpatient expenses low.
“I’m proud of the work the hospital has done to get to this point and I’m excited about where we’re going,” added Duncan.
Barber added that Chester County Hospital just celebrated its 125th anniversary and is currently in the midst of an expansion project that will add 250,000 square feet to the hospital’s campus and is renovating 26,000 square feet of its existing facility in West Chester, PA. The construction will expand the Emergency Department and include a new procedural platform with 18 rooms including state-of-the-art operating rooms and interventional hybrid/procedure rooms, and a new patient tower with capacity for 99 beds. The project is estimated to be complete by 2020.
“That will put us over 300 beds for the community,” he added.
“We are building a state of the art facility, but there is a lot of history to preserve. We respect the history and build upon it,” said Gorman.