NEWHALL HOSPITAL RANKS HIGH SURVEY ADDRESSES AILMENTS THAT PARTICULARLY AFFECT SENIORS.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A recently released federally mandated report on the quality of care at medical centers shows that Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital ranked in the top half in three categories that affect senior adults.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid released the findings on its Web site to provide consumers with information on how hospitals score in three clinical topics: heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.

The Hospital Quality Alliance report, a collaborative effort between the CMS, national hospital organizations and consumer advocates among others, found that with heart attack care, Newhall Memorial scored 100 percent within some quality measures. In some categories, not enough patients were interviewed.

For example, Newhall Memorial scored 100 percent for administering aspirin to heart attack patients, compared with 96 percent of hospitals nationwide.

In the same category, Glendale Adventist Medical Center ranked at 88 percent, while Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank scored 98 percent and Antelope Valley Hospital 93 percent. But while Newhall Memorial scored above 50 percent within almost each topic, administrators there cautioned that the data are still preliminary and that some patients received treatment at another facility before coming to Newhall Memorial. The percentages were culled from medical record data submitted voluntarily by 4,000 hospitals from January to March.

A CMS spokesman said data are still being compiled and analyzed to make it easy for the public to understand.

``The report is very important, but from a layperson's point of view, somewhat difficult to understand,'' said Terry Stone, director of quality care for the hospital. ``It's much more clinical in nature and that's part of my concern.''

Stone said hospitals will use the information to compare their quality of care with other medical facilities and also share it with the medical staff.

Hospitals have been providing information through the federal initiative since November 2003, according to the CMS.

The CMS plans to release data quarterly, but a spokesman there said that because the system is relatively new, it will take time before the data are consistent and useful to the public.

``This is an emerging bench-marking system within our country to compare hospitals,'' said Newhall Memorial spokeswoman Andie Bogdan.

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com