New England Public Radio

Head of UMass Memorial Questions Federal Hospital Ranking System

The head of the UMass Memorial medical center is pushing back after the hospital received a poor rating in a new federal ranking system.

Dr. Eric Dickson is chief executive at UMass Memorial. The Worcester hospital received a one star rating out of five.

Dickson says the system favors certain types of medical centers.

“The system is fundamentally flawed and and skewed towards giving the highest ratings to small hospitals that take care of a narrow population of patients,” he says.  “And skewed against tertiary referral centers that take in the sickest patients under the most dire of circumstances.”

A statement from Baystate Health seems to agree noting a quote discrepancy that affects teaching hospitals. While three of Baystate’s community hospitals received four stars, the much larger Baystate Medical Center in Springfield received three.

Worcester’s UMass Memorial Chopping More Jobs

More job cuts announced Wednesday for UMass Memorial hospital in Worcester.

In a letter on the hospital website, UMass Memorial President Patrick Muldoon talked of plans to get the hospital out of what he called its “very serious fiscal situation.”

The letter says that on top of 285 positions eliminated since last fall, 103 more were cut last month or will be. Four operating rooms will be closed, and there will be fewer beds in the pediatric intensive care unit.

“There is no way to…make the kind of service and staffing cuts they are making without jeopardizing the safety of care for patients there. You just can’t do it,” says David Schildmeier with the Massachusetts Nurses Association. “To say that you can is a lie.”

UMass Memorial’s Muldoon says in his letter he’s confident the changes will allow the hospital to continue to provide high-quality, safe care.

A statement from the hospital notes that it had a $55 million operating loss in its last fiscal year.The hospital company’s bond rating was downgraded last month by Moody’s, citing a decline in patients and a heavy debt load.