Clearwater hospital makes list of top 50

Morton Plant, one of only two Florida hospitals honored, celebrates the ranking revealed in AARP's Modern Maturity.

By MONIQUE FIELDS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 1, 2002

CLEARWATER -- Morton Plant Hospital administrators found out about the hospital's latest kudos like thousands of others did: by reading it in AARP's Modern Maturity.

There, on the slick pages of the magazine for people 50 and older, Morton Plant was listed as the 50th best hospital in the country.

Included on the list were the likes of NYU Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Emory University Hospital.

Morton Plant was pleased to be included.

"That's pretty good company to be in," said Hal Ziecheck, the hospital's administrator and chief executive officer. "We're excited by the recognition of our physicians and our clinical team."

It also gives the hospital a good reason to take out a full-page newspaper advertisement touting its staff, fly banners outside of its door, and offer ice cream and other goodies to employees.

"This is a great opportunity for us to say thank you not only to our team but to our community," said Philip Beauchamp, president and chief executive officer of Morton Plant Mease Health Care.

The recognition comes at a time when everything, from cars to colleges, is ranked. Largo Medical Center, for example, was named among the 100 Top Hospitals in 2000 by Solucient, a health care information company based in Evanston, Ill. Bayfront Medical Center also has garnered its share of awards, including one from the Florida Medical Business newspaper, naming it the "Best Run Hospital" in Tampa Bay in 2001.

Even with the listing frenzy, Morton Plant administrators say this latest list is one of substance.

North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., was named the top hospital. One other Florida hospital, Baptist Hospital of Miami, was included on the top 50 list. It was No. 14.

Consumers' Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer education program, crunched the numbers and then had them exclusively featured in the magazine. They sorted through facts and figures, including ratings by about 20,000 doctors nationwide, accreditation scores given by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and medical and surgical mortality rates.

The doctors were surveyed on 1,300 of the nation's 4,500 hospitals, or those that fall within a major metropolitan area. That decision eliminated a few hospitals from the list, including the Mayo Clinic, which is located in Rochester, Minn., and Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

"Our objective was to develop a consumers' guide to hospitals, which would include all acute care hospitals in the country," said Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers' Checkbook.

He noted there are several ways to rank hospitals, but the hospitals listed in the top 50 of his study would likely rise to the top no matter how they were evaluated.

Morton Plant, for example, "was not just dramatically good on any one of those things," Krughoff said, referring to the study's criteria. "It was consistent on all of those things."

It wasn't clear whether any one element at Morton Plant boosted it onto the list. But administrators pointed to a few factors they think have helped Morton Plant become a better hospital.

For starters, Beauchamp said the hospital has a "blameless culture."

In other words, if a mistake is made, the hospital doesn't look to blame a doctor or a nurse; it looks to other hospitals to see how Morton Plant can improve.

The hospital has also developed teams of doctors, nurses and others to evaluate problems and then make recommendations on how to solve them.

For example, Morton Plant has changed how it treats patients who have heart surgery.

Seven years ago, a patient would spend, on average, 16 hours on a respirator, leaving him open to infections and other complications. Today, that figure is down to three or four hours.

After the tube is removed, the patient may talk with his family and his doctor, alleviating fears of complications. Patients also tend to recover more quickly, Ziecheck said.

But even Krughoff said potential patients shouldn't solely rely on published lists.

He suggested potential patients learn about a suggested procedure, alternatives to that procedure and whether it's in their best interest to undergo a particular procedure. Once admitted, a patient should also take control of his care by asking questions about prescribed medication and dietary suggestions to make sure they are consistent with his well-being.

"It's important that you learn as much as you can about your case before you go in the hospital," Krughoff said. "You also want to know as much as you can so you can participate in the process."

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