Butler Health System earns 'Top 100 Hospitals' designation
Butler Health System with its flagship facility, Butler Memorial Hospital, was named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals by IBM Watson Health and is one of only 13 hospitals that received the annual Everest Award for greatest improvement over a five-year period.
The 100 Top Hospitals designation spotlights the top-performing hospitals in the U.S. based on a scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational and patient satisfaction data.
Some of the criteria used to name the 100 Top Hospitals include better survival rates, fewer complications and infections, shorter length of stay, shorter emergency department wait times, lower inpatient expenses, higher profit margins overall and higher patient satisfaction.
Ken DeFurio, Butler Health System president and CEO, is thrilled to receive the designation and will accept the award in April.
“This recognizes the year-after-year efforts by our 400 doctors and 2,500 employees to provide and improve upon the very best care to patients,” DeFurio said. “I like this one because we did not apply for this award. It's based on actual results.”
He said health care has become a very competitive field in which many mergers and consolidations have created mega hospitals.
“We have studied, is bigger necessarily better?” DeFurio said. “We have come to the conclusion that's not always the case. Doing the right thing is.”
He said quality and service are the two most important factors in being designated among the 100 Top Hospitals, as are responsible financial decisions.
“We treat each and every patient as if it's our own family,” he said. “If we conduct ourselves that way we will achieve a high level of satisfaction.”
He said the award allows hospital officials to point to measurable proof that Butler Memorial Hospital is the best choice for Medicare and Medicaid as well as large health insurers like UPMC, Highmark, Cigna and others.
“We're exclusively a health care provider,” DeFurio said. “We're not in the insurance business, which is very, very important to long-term success.”
Regarding positive changes since he took the reins 12 years ago, DeFurio said Butler Health System is committed to working closely with doctors in the community and has developed a physician network of primary care and specialty doctors that is meeting the needs of the community the health system serves.
When DeFurio was named CEO 12 years ago, the hospital employed about 20 doctors.
“Now, we have 150 physicians and 50 nurse practitioners and physician assistants,” he said. “We're all in this patient care business together, so the doctors, the hospital and the outpatient clinics need to work together.”
He said it was a financial risk in 2010 to build the “tower” section of the hospital on the heels of a nationwide recession, but the board of directors decided it was the right thing to do.
“It's paid off,” DeFurio said. “We're busier now than we've ever been.”
He said the technology put in place when the tower was added has been supplemented since then and has greatly improved not only care but options for patients.
Examples, DeFurio said, are the tower's high-level cardiovascular capabilities, advanced neurological procedures, and constant upgrades to MRI and CT imaging.
Of the recipients of the 100 Top Hospitals designation, Butler Health System also was named an Everest Award winner for its rate of improvement over the last five years.
“That is our ongoing focus on improving quality, controlling cost and improving customer satisfaction,” DeFurio said. “We're keeping our eye on the ball and doing the right thing.”
Jean Chenoweth, IBM Watson Health's senior vice president of the 100 Top Hospitals program, congratulated the Butler Health System on its double designation.
“The country's best hospitals have proven that an unrelenting focus on quality, supported by constant measurement against peer performance benchmarks, can drive improved outcomes while reducing costs and growing profit margins,” Chenoweth said.
DeFurio said the tandem awards can be a source of great pride for the employees and everyone associated with the Butler Health System.
“There's a team of 2,500 people, and each and every one of our employees at Butler Health System works very, very hard to make it one of the best independent health systems anywhere,” DeFurio said. “There's a fierce pride in being an independent hospital that delivers quality care.”
