HUP ranked tenth best hospital in nation

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has been ranked among the top ten hospitals in the nation for the fourth consecutive year by the U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News released its 2011-12 Best Hospital Honor Roll last week, with HUP ranked tenth out of 17 hospitals selected from 4,825 nationwide.

“We are very pleased and very proud,” said Garry Scheib, Executive Director of HUP and Chief Operating Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

He credited much of the success to the faculty and staff at HUP, calling them the “greatest team.”

“The physicians [at HUP] couldn’t do anything without the top-flight support staff,” Scheib added.

U.S. News compiled the list through a points system. Hospitals that received the highest scores in a given specialty received two Honor Roll points, while those with slightly lower scores were given one point.

Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital topped the list, with the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston coming in second and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. ranked third.

Overall, HUP scored high marks in 15 of the 16 specialties, with a total of 17 Honor Roll points. It was among the top ten in four specialties, ranking tenth in cardiology and heart surgery; seventh in ear, nose and throat; seventh in gastroenterology; and ninth in pulmonology.

Last year, HUP had patient referrals and transfers from every other hospital in the tri-state area, which includes the regions of Delaware, southern New Jersey and southeast Pennsylvania, according to Schieb. The hospital also saw patients from every county in the state of Pennsylvania last year.

The success of the hospital to draw in a plethora of patients is an “indication of the high level of care all across the services provided” at HUP, Scheib said.

Roma Bhatia, a research assistant in the Department of Neurology, agreed that HUP has versatile patient care. “What makes HUP really unique is that it’s so interdisciplinary,” she said.

To advance in the rankings in the future, Schieb said that “the most important thing is to keep the patients in focus.”

In addition to the ranking, U.S. News also compiled data on patient satisfaction at hospitals.

The patient satisfaction survey showed that 78 percent of patients would recommend HUP to friends and family. The state and national average is slightly lower, at 65 percent and 68 percent, respectively. The survey found that 76 percent of patients believed that nurses were “always courteous and respectful, listened carefully and explained things clearly,” and doctors received 78 percent approval.

However, areas such as speed of service and facility cleanliness and comfort did not fare as well. Only 54 percent of patients said that they got help from the staff as quickly as they felt they needed it. The same number felt that their rooms and bathrooms were kept clean and 42 percent felt that it was quiet at night around their rooms.

Patrick Brennan, the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of UPHS, said that these low numbers are a “reflection of some of the inpatient facilities” at HUP, which are “not state of the art” and “need to get better.”

One improvement that can be made is increasing the number of beds at HUP. Brennan cited an example last week when the number of patients exceeded the number of available beds.

“We had 49 patients who needed a bed,” Brennan wrote in an email. “Our average daily occupancy last year was about 88 percent but more recently it has been at 100 percent … When you literally have every bed filled and patients are waiting for beds it is an enormous strain.”

Although some of HUP’s facilities may need improvement, Brennan said that, for patients, HUP’s “quality of care is unmatched in the region.”

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