A month after Cleveland Clinic took issue with a comparison of their Florida hospitals to Orlando Health’s hospitals based on the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, they still have not provided data from the Vizient company that the Cleveland’s chief safety officer told the Indian River County Hospital District would provide a more accurate picture.
The scores are of importance to Vero Beach 32963 readers facing decisions as to where to seek care because Cleveland Clinic operates the Vero Beach hospital and Orlando Health has just taken over the county’s other hospital, the former Sebastian River Medical Center.
The hospital data Cleveland Clinic directed the Hospital District to look at instead of Leapfrog data is not available to the media, so we requested the 2023 and 2024 Vizient data from Cleveland Clinic on Nov. 22. As of press time, after multiple follow-up requests to Vero Beach and Weston personnel, we have not received the asked-for Vizient data.
In the meantime, members of the local medical community continue to point us to other sources of hospital data which might help inform readers about the parent companies now operating Indian River County’s two major adult hospitals.
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (publicreporting.sts.org) awards scores of one, two or three stars to hospitals in numerous categories based upon heart surgeries and other thoracic or “of the chest” surgeries.
These ratings, known as the STS data, are voluntarily reported by the surgeons and seemed a fair measure that would give the lauded Cleveland Clinic a chance to shine. But a comparison of the latest STS ratings of Cleveland Clinic’s five Florida hospitals, when compared to Orlando Health’s hospitals, still puts Orlando Health on top.
“Using this information, consumers can see how participating cardiac surgical groups compare with national benchmarks for overall performance, survival, complications, and other measures,” the STS said about its rankings. “It is important to understand that these scores compare the results of a hospital or surgical practice/group with those of an average hospital or practice participating in the Database and treating patients with the same mix of severity of illness.”
The rankings attempt to quantify surgical outcomes in terms of post-operative mortality and morbidity, as well as the use of certain surgical techniques. Because the ratings are based upon surgical outcomes, the Society cautions against comparing one single hospital’s score against another single hospital’s score because the patient mix at one hospital might be significantly “sicker” than the patients at another hospital.
Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital’s cardiac surgery team was rated on 11 criteria in three major categories – Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Composite, Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR) Composite, and AVR plus CABG Composite Quality Rating.
Ratings span surgery outcomes from January 2021 through December 2023, with one-star being below average, two-star being an “as expected” or within average range score, and three start denoting above-average performance. The STS also assigns number scores on a 100-point scale.
In the coronary bypass category, Cleveland Clinic’s Indian River Hospital was ranked two stars or “as expected” in all but one category, Receipt of Required Perioperative Medications.
It’s worth noting that every local and regional hospital rated for that criteria received three stars and a very high number score in the Receipt of Required Perioperative Medications category.
In the Atrial Valve Replacement and AVR plus CABG categories, Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital received two stars across the board on every criteria, with number scores ranging from 84 percent to 97.5 percent.
Cleveland Clinic’s Weston hospital was rated two stars in all categories except the Receipt of Required Perioperative Medications, in which it got three stars. Number scores ranged from 81.8 percent to 99.8 percent on 11 criteria graded.
Orlando Health’s cardiothoracic surgery group at its Central Florida hospitals were ranked together for adult surgeries. In the three above categories Cleveland Clinic was rated on, Orlando Health received three-star grades in 7 out of 11 criteria, with number scores ranging from 88.4 to 99.9 percent.
Orlando Health also reported data for a Mitral Valve Repair/Replacement (MVRR) category and a MVRR plus Cardiac Artery Graft Bypass Composite score and received two stars across the board in those categories, with number scores ranging from 75.5 percent to 96.8 percent.
The STS assigns grades for General Thoracic Surgery as well, but Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital did not receive rankings for its general thoracic surgery.
In the category of Lobectomy for Lung Cancer, Cleveland Clinic’s Martin County hospitals performed on a par with Orlando Health, receiving three-star rankings in two-thirds of the criteria. Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston received all two-star ranks in the Lobectomy category.
Editor’s note: We encourage members of the local Vero Beach and Sebastian medical community to contact us with any information that might help inform our reporting on hospital safety and quality at both the Cleveland Clinic and Orlando Health network of hospitals.