Morton Hospital, part of the Steward Health Care System (Steward), today announced it was named to the prestigious Community Value Five-Star List as one of the top performing community hospitals in the country. Morton Hospital received the 2016 Community Value Leadership Award from nationally-recognized data and consulting firm Cleverley + Associates.

Cleverly + Associates first published its Community Value Index in 2004 as a way to assess the value an individual hospital provides to its local community. The Index examines 10 measures within the four performance areas – financial viability and plant reinvestment, hospital cost structure, hospital charge structure, and hospital quality performance – and remains the most comprehensive index dedicated to hospital value assessment.

“The topic of hospital value is increasingly being discussed. Issues of pricing and community benefit have been well-publicized but little has been offered to measure the broad scope of value,” said James Cleverley, co-author of the 2016 State of the Hospital Industry, which reports the Community Value Index. “In response, the Community Value Index was created to provide an assessment of a hospital’s performance in four areas: financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care, pricing, and quality. Fundamentally, the CVI suggests that a hospital provides value to the community when it is financially viable, is appropriately reinvesting back into the facility, maintains a low-cost structure, has reasonable charges, and provides high quality care to patients.”

Under Steward’s patient-centric Accountable Care Organization model, Morton Hospital has:

·         Received the “Gold Ribbon Seal in Healthcare” from the Joint Commission on Accreditation, a national non-profit organization which accredits and certifies over 20,000 health care organizations and programs using national health care quality and safety standards.

·         Achieved some of the highest quality scores from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Alternative Quality Contract, which are nationally recognized metrics measuring quality of care and patient experience.

“The Community Value Leadership Award is a yet another strong validation of Morton’s quality care delivery model,” said Deborah Bitsoli, CPA, MBA, President of Morton Hospital. “We are thrilled to be counted among the Community Value Five-Star hospitals, and will continue to strive to provide high quality health care at an affordable cost in the Taunton area.”

As large hospital systems move health care into urban centers and away from the communities that need them, Morton Hospital and Steward have worked to keep quality care local, all while making it more affordable. Morton’s 2016 Community Value Leadership Award demonstrates Steward’s continued ability to provide high quality, affordable community-based health care services.