SVMC Ranks Fourth in the Nation for Healthcare Value

SVMC Tops Vermont’s Hospitals with an A+ Rating Overall

BENNINGTON, VT—July 29, 2020—Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), ranked fourth out of 3,282 hospitals nationwide for value of care, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. The hospital also earned an A+ overall, highest among Vermont’s 10 hospitals.

“We are particularly proud to have been ranked so highly for value, which is not often considered by other healthcare ranking organizations,” said Thomas A. Dee, FACHE, SVHC’s president and CEO. “We put patients’ needs and interests first, and this assessment is a powerful reflection of our patient-centered culture.”

According to the Lown Institute website, some hospitals provide health care services that are unnecessary, expensive, and even harmful. Unneeded or ineffective procedures, tests, scans, and medications can cause physical harm and waste resources. This overuse is known as low-value care. The practice increases healthcare costs and puts patients at risk. The index evaluates how often hospitals deliver 13 commonly overused services, including over prescribing, over screening, and unnecessary procedures. It grades the hospitals based on the likelihood that they are delivering care appropriately.

In a video announcing the new index, Shannon Brownlee, senior vice president of the Lown Institute and author of the New York Times’ best economics book of 2007, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, said, “Hospitals are supposed to help us, but sometimes they deliver services that are not only unnecessary; they can hurt patients.” She continued, “This problem has been receiving increased attention in recent years, but it has never been included in a hospital ranking until now.” 

“Integrity and letting patients’ needs guide our actions are fundamental to our mission of exceptional care,” said Trey Dobson, MD, SVMC’s chief medical officer and emergency physician. “I am proud of our medical staff and clinical and non-clinical support professionals for having performed so well in this national ranking.”

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index is a new project of the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that conducts research, convenes experts, and sparks public debate to bridge the gap between existing public policy surrounding healthcare in America. The Lown Institute Hospitals Index is a new kind of hospital ranking, one that takes into account the full breadth of what hospitals do. It evaluates hospitals’ performance based on how well they treat their patients, their commitment to providing high-value care, and their investment in community health.

SVMC’s cumulative ranking placed it 136^th nationwide, in the top 4% of hospitals nationally. Additionally, the hospital ranked 19^th out of 516 small hospitals (50 – 99 beds) in the United States.   

The index serves as the data source for the “Best Hospitals for America” feature in Washington Monthly’s July/August 2020 issue. For more information about the Lown Hospital’s Index, visit lownhospitalsindex.org.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices. For more information, visit svhealthcare.org.

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.