Leominster's HealthAlliance Tops Consumer Reports Ranking
Two Central Massachusetts hospitals made the top 10 of 51 in the state in a safety ranking recently issued by Consumer Reports, the first such ranking by the magazine.
HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster received the highest ranking in the state – with a score of 66 out of 100 – while Milford Regional Medical Center placed third in the state with a score of 64.
Other Central Massachusetts hospitals received the following scores:
- Saint Vincent Hospital received a 58 (11th place)
- Harrington Memorial Hospital received a 57 (16th place)
- Heywood Hospital received a 56 (19th place)
- UMass Memorial Medical Center received a 53 (23rd place)
- UMass's Marlborough Hospital and MetroWest Medical Center both received a 44 (45th and 46th place).
Consumer Reports ranked 1,159 hospitals around the country based on six safety factors: infections, readmissions, communication, duplicative CT scans, complications and mortality. The Billings Clinic, in Billings, Mont., received the highest score at 72.
Despite the fact that 180,000 deaths occur annually from surgical mistakes and infections, the magazine said many hospitals do not keep adequate or usable data on safety metrics, which means it was unable to adequately rank the performance of more than 80 percent of the nation's hospitals.
The rankings do not assess how successful hospitals are at treating medical conditions, and Consumer Reports noted that some medical professionals felt the ranking system was questionable.
For example, hospitals with little home or community support may have higher readmission rates, the magazine noted.
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