Business

Pardee, Park Ridge ranked in NC survey

By Bill Moss, Published: March 26, 2014

Park Ridge Health in Fletcher ranked third in patient satisfaction and Pardee Hospital was among six smaller hospitals to make a business magazine's list of "Best Hospitals" in North Carolina.

Park Ridge ranked third in patient satisfaction, based on surveys of patients' views of discharge instructions, cleanliness, medical outcomes and other factors. Park Ridge's patient satisfaction score of 85 percent finished a point behind UNC Hospitals and Duke University Hospital, which were tied for first with an 86 percent score. Mission Hospital in Asheville was ranked sixth.

County-owned Pardee came in tied for 23rd overall in the annual top 25 list published by Business North Carolina magazine.
"There were only six of the 25 that had under 350 beds so for an organization of our size and scope to make that list is a positive for our team members," Pardee CEO Jay Kirby told the hospital Board of Directors during its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday.

On quality the magazine ranked the hospitals based on reports from the Leapfrog hospital measurement group, Blue Cross Blue Shield and independent evaluations measuring patient satisfaction, death rates from heart attacks and other major risk categories, readmission rates and complications from surgeries.
Rex Hospital in Raleigh, which like Pardee is a part of the UNC Hospitals network, was ranked no. 1 in the "best hospitals" list and tired for fourth in patient satisfaction. UNC Hospitals ranked 13th and another UNC family member, High Point Regional Health, came in at 15th. Among NC mountains hospitals, Mission Health ranked second and Medwest-Haywood Hospital in Clyde was tied with Pardee at 23rd.
The business magazine's ranking of the Hendersonville hospital came after Consumer Reports ranked Pardee No. 1 in the state for surgery.
Despite the strong showing in national and statewide rankings, Pardee continues to fight a headwind financially in the first half of its fiscal year, which started Oct. 1.
Slowed by snow days that closed doctors' offices and urgent care clinics and a decline in patient volumes, Pardee reported lower revenues in February compared to last year and to its budget, the Board of Directors was told. After a strong financial year in 2012-13, the hospital board adopted an aggressive budget for the current year. It has missed the mark in most months so far.
Admissions in February were 2,781, 602 under budget and 356 lower than the same month last year. Emergency room visits, at 11,904, were 980 under budget 762 behind last year. The hospital did 3,902 surgeries, 310 under budget and 168 fewer than February 2013.

Physician visits represented a bright spot financially. The total of 34,344 was 2,622 over budget and just 83 under last year. Combined urgent care visits at the Hendersonville and Fletcher clinics were 11.203, 174 under budget but 2,582 over 2013 (before the Fletcher clinic opened). The net operating margin of minus-2 percent was 4.5 percent under budget.
"Hospitals across the region, across the UNC system and across the Upstate are experiencing decreasing volumes in many areas," Kirby said.
Trimming $932,000 in payroll and $932,000 in other expenses, the hospital was able to reduce the monthly operating shortfall to $196,000. On the plus side, Pardee logged a healthy 5 percent return on stock market investments, far ahead of its bond holdings, which inched up at a rate of a half percentage point.