Southeast Georgia Health System Recognized As A Community Value Five-Star Hospital

<>pSoutheast Georgia Health System-Brunswick Campus has been recognized as a top-ranking CommunityValueFive-StarHospitalby Cleverley + Associates (C+A). C+A, a leading 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—2013 Edition.

According to Health System Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Michael D. Scherneck, the recognition speaks to the great value the Health System provides to the community. As value is increasingly discussed nationally, the Community Value Index®has provided an objective assessment of the relative value a hospital provides.The Health System’s commitment to the community, including efforts to maintain competitive charges and reinvesting capital to meet the future needs of our area, led to the honor.

Scherneck stated, “We are pleased to have been recognized by Cleverley + Associates. Our Health System realizes the important role that we play in meeting the health needs of our community and fully appreciate that we must accomplish our responsibilities keeping quality care at the forefront while still managing the economic framework within which we operate. We are most proud of our CommunityValueFive-StarHospitalrating and, more importantly, of the efforts of our entire team that have enabled us to position Southeast Georgia Health System to meet the future challenges facing our community and the healthcare industry.”

Written by William O. Cleverley, PhD, a noted 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 (2009-2011).

For the 10th year, the 2013 State of the Hospital Industry reports an exclusive meausure developed by Cleverley + Associates: the Community Value Index® (CVI). The CVI is a proprietary index created to offer a measure of the value that a hospital provides to its community. It is the first and most comprehensive analysis of its kind – making the award even more meaningful. In the end, the accomplishment provides evidence that the Health System is operating efficiently, charging reasonably, and providing high quality services.

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 topic of hospital value is increasingly being discussed. Issues of pricing and community benefit have been well-publicized but little has been offered to measure the broad scope of value,” says the book’s co-author, James Cleverley. “In response, the Community Value Index® was created to provide an assessment of a hospital’s performance in four areas: financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care, pricing and quality. Fundamentally, the CVI suggests that a hospital provides value to the community when it is financially viable, is appropriately reinvesting back into the facility, maintains a low cost structure, has reasonable charges, and provides high quality care to patients.”

Scherneck agrees. “By remaining financially viable, we can continue to offer the latest technologies and innovations in health care in Southeast Georgia,” Scherneck says. “And by putting our resources back into the community through reinvestments such as the Cancer Care Center in Camden and the Center for Educational Development in Brunswick, new technologies such as the CyberKnife®, the expansion of our cardiac cath lab and special procedures room, and new medical office plazas on the Brunswick and Camden campuses, we are committed to providing our community with the best health care at the best possible cost.”