Last Sunday’s Spokesman-Review article (“Marketing Medical Care: For-profit hospital ‘report cards’ raise questions”) introduced an important and timely topic: quality ratings of hospitals.

We, the employees, physicians, board members and volunteers of Deaconess Medical Center, Valley Hospital and First Care Centers, believe hospital report cards are here to stay.

Report card ratings help our patients know how well we deliver care in comparison with other options. Our insurance partners and government payers use ratings to measure our patient outcomes.

You have made it clear during our recent Town Hall meetings your desire to know that Spokane has the best care at the most reasonable cost. A desire we share.

Ratings are used everywhere to help you make better choices. Colleges and universities are rated top in the region or the nation. Products are rated for performance, reliability and other qualities valued by consumers. Hotels and restaurants receive coveted stars indicating their excellence; and, increasingly, hospitals receive rankings, accreditations and other indicators of quality.

With patients taking a bigger role in managing their own health care, hospital ratings are becoming an integral part of a patient’s care management and decision-making process. The health-care environment is becoming more transparent. This is a good thing and a trend we wholeheartedly support.

In November 2004, our employees set their focus on achieving a very noble goal – to be No. 1 in the nation in patient, employee and physician safety and satisfaction.

We have set our intention and aim at being better than any leading hospital in our country – because we know that the best hospital isn’t really about city population, licensed beds, big buildings or geography.

It’s about an unshakable dedication to continually improving the quality and cost of care. It’s about innovation – not imitation. And ultimately, it’s about an unfaltering devotion to our patients. That is our focus – that is our passion.

To achieve our goal, we continually compare our performance against a variety of national rating sources, including the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Solicient, HealthGrades and Medicare’s Hospital Compare. None of these sources allows any hospital to pay for a desired rating. The data and results for these sources are public. The methodology for developing hospital ratings is independent, objective, valid and reliable.

We use advertising to share the rating results of our progress toward our goal. We want you to be fully informed in making your health-care decisions.

We also encourage you to visit our Web site and the Web sites of rating companies to review the quality information and ratings of all hospitals. It’s all there. The areas we shine and the areas we need to do better.

We realize that not all health-care providers are comfortable with the new rating systems and the information being published. The idea of transparency in medical practice and outcomes may be new to many – but very necessary to improve health-care quality and cost for everyone.

We partner with rating sources to help us increase our clinical quality performance. In addition to presenting hospital quality ratings on their Web site, HealthGrades, for example, provides in-depth quality data in more than 20 clinical areas to the hundreds of health-care organizations who contract for those services.

We use this information to benchmark our quality on a national basis – because when you decide to be No. 1 in the nation, you need to know where the goal line is.

Focusing on our goal is the right thing to do. Improving hospital care quality and cost benefits our patients and attracts high wage-paying employers to locate more of their employees in Spokane and Spokane Valley. There is no reason anyone should seek hospital care elsewhere in the state or nation.

We encourage you to follow our progress and watch us improve. In fact, you are a part of this journey. Health care is more the responsibility of the patient than ever before, and the choices can seem overwhelming. We fervently hope that every investment and decision we make results in improved quality, cost of care and increased confidence by you in your health-care choices.

I encourage you to log on to the quality Web sites. Read the national news stories on medical quality. Pay attention to the health-care information in the broadcast media. You can even ask me – I can be reached at CEO@empirehealth.org.

I welcome your thoughts on this topic – one of the most essential aspects of our quality of life – health care for us and our loved ones.