Penn State Hershey Medical Center ranked among Top 100 hospitals

Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has been recognized as one of the nation's Top 100 hospitals by Cleverley + Associates of Columbus, Ohio. Cleverley + Associates, a health-care financial consulting firm specializing in operational benchmarking and performance enhancement strategies, released the findings as part of its new publication: "State of the Hospital Industry — 2008 Edition."

Penn State Hershey Medical Center is one of only seven hospitals in Pennsylvania chosen for Cleverley + Associates' Community Value Index (CVI) Top 100 list and is the only "high intensity teaching hospital" from the Commonwealth to earn the distinction. The Cleverley + Associates study suggests that hospitals that demonstrate low costs, low charges and efficient use of financial resources operate with a high degree of community value.

"We are honored that Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has earned distinction for the second consecutive year for our efforts to effectively manage our costs and maintain appropriate charges while making thoughtful and worthwhile investments in patient care services and quality," said Harold L. Paz, chief executive officer of the Medical Center, Penn State's senior vice president for health affairs and dean of Penn State College of Medicine. "This recognition of our commitment to quality and efficiency is testament to our excellent faculty and staff."

Written by William O. Cleverley, an expert in health-care finance, the State of the Hospital Industry reports selected measures of hospital financial performance and discusses the critical factors that lie behind them. The publication focuses on the U.S. acute-care hospital industry over a three-year time period (2004-2006).

For the fifth year, the State of the Hospital Industry reports the CVI, a proprietary index created to offer a measure of the value that a hospital provides to its community. The book outlines the data used to calculate the CVI, as well as provides a list of the Top 100 and all Five-Star (top quintile) hospitals. The Medical Center earned Five-Star distinction as well.

"The topic of health care value is increasingly being discussed. Recent highlights on hospital performance and pricing have driven the dialogue; however, interested parties have been looking for objective information regarding the issues," added James Cleverley, co-author. "In response, the Community Value Index was created to provide an assessment of a hospital's performance in three areas: financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care and pricing. Fundamentally, the CVI suggests that hospitals that are low cost, low charge and use financial resources efficiently for reinvestment back into the provision of health care are operating with a high degree of community value."