Wikipedia
The Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic, the second-best hospital in the nation as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, ranks so poorly in equity metrics that it failed to crack the United States' top 500 hospitals when "social responsibility" was taken into account.
The Lown Institute, a healthcare think tank which earlier this year found that the Cleveland Clinic was the most selfish hospital in the nation — it spends less than any other hospital in the United States on community and charity care relative to its tax exemptions, a "fair share deficit" of $261 million — has just published the second annual edition of its Social Responsibility Index, the only ranking of U.S. hospitals, it says, to include equity as a major category. The Clinic ranked 543 overall.
Despite "A" grades in both value and clinical outcomes, the Clinic received a "C" grade in equity, including a "D" in pay equity (ranked 3423 of 3699 hospitals nationwide in how hospital staff are paid relative to executives) and a "D" in community benefit (3301 of 3641 in community spending).
Two Ohio hospitals appeared on the Index's Top 10 — Mercy Hospital Clermont, in Batavia, and East Liverpool City Hospital in East Liverpool — and in fact, a third of the 75 hospitals that received A grades in equity, value and outcomes were located in either Ohio or California.
The Cleveland Clinic fared about as well as the rest of the country's top hospitals. Johns Hopkins Hospital performed best (#147) among those that also appears on the US News & World Report list. The Lown Institute noted that while these hospitals achieved high marks on outcomes and value, every hospital except for Johns Hopkins received a “C” or “D” grade on equity.
“It’s not enough for hospitals to say they’re committed to social responsibility," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, in a press release. “They need to put their commitment into action. Doing well on the Lown Index is one way they can demonstrate progress.”
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