ASHA Testifies Before Senate Finance Committee on Physician-Owned Specialty Hospitals

The American Surgical Hospital Association (ASHA) earlier this week testified before the Senate Finance Committee at its second hearing on physician-owned specialty hospitals. John House, MD, a practicing urologist, physician owner, and member of the board of USMDHospital in Arlington, Texas drove home several key points for the industry.

House testified about the high quality of care provided at physician-owned hospitals, as indicated by several studies, including the Congressionally mandated Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) study released in 2005. He also discussed the current state of overall hospital quality, noting that, “In April, HealthGrades released its third ‘Patient Safety in American Hospitals’ report.  According to their report, if ‘all hospitals performed at the level of the top 15 percent, 280,134 fewer patient incidents and 44,153 fewer deaths among Medicare patients would have occurred, saving $2.45 billion during the years 2002 through 2004.’ This HealthGrades Report should serve as a wakeup call that a much greater focus on quality is needed nationally.” 

House established that physician-owned hospitals are properly emphasizing the importance of patient care, willingly spending hard-earned profits to purchase new technology and establish low nurse to patient ratios. He stated, “By simply adopting the average nurse to patient ratios found in specialty hospitals, which is one nurse to every 3.5 patients, general hospitals could significantly reduce errors and improve care.  Regrettably, too many hospitals refuse to adopt this strategy despite extensive research establishing the direct link between the number of nurses and patient outcomes. They choose to put profits before their patients.”

In addition, House emphasized the fact that no evidence has been found that ASHA members are harming general hospitals financially, that services are being overutilized, or that physician ownership leads to improper or unnecessary referrals. House urged the Committee to recognize the strength of the study findings and refocus their energies on issues of greater importance to the healthcare industry, such as quality of care and transparency of healthcare information.   

Source: ASHA