Hospital for Special Surgery is the Top Ranked Hospital by Medicare Orthopedic Discharge Volume by Treating 40% More Patients than the Nation’s 2nd Highest Volume Hospital



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By: Jeffrey Maser  Nov. 22, 2017

In another Dexur article, we addressed the connection between physician discharge volume and quality metrics. We found that although volume alone does not necessarily imply quality, these two factors have a strong positive correlation. Therefore, it is still valuable to understand which physicians in an area account for a large portion of the community's healthcare. Similarly, it is valuable to understand which hospitals account for high percentages of a community's discharges.

Dexur data analysts studied hospital discharge volume on national, statewide, and countywide levels for every therapeutic area and specific DRG and the top 10 hospitals for orthopedic discharge volume nationwide for the time period of October 2015 - September 2016 are given below.

RankHospital NameCityState / U.S. TerritoryTotal Medicare Inpatient Orthopedic Discharges% Of National Discharges
All U.S. Hospitals1,364,880100.00
1Hospital for Special SurgeryNew YorkNew York5,5240.40
2Florida Hospital, OrlandoOrlandoFlorida3,9020.29
3Beaumont Hospital, Royal OakRoyal OakMichigan3,6570.27
4Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Mary's CampusRochesterMinnesota3,6430.27
5Christiana HospitalWilmingtonDelaware3,2370.24
6New England Baptist HospitalRoxbury CrossingMassachusetts2,7130.20
7Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterLos AngelesCalifornia2,5570.19
8Morristown Medical CenterMorristownNew Jersey2,5420.19
9New Hanover Regional Medical CenterWilmingtonNorth Carolina2,5120.18
10Virtua Voorhees HospitalVoorheesNew Jersey2,4120.18

As indicated by the above table, between October 2015 - September 2016, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York, New York saw over 1,500 more orthopedic discharges more than the next leading hospital in orthopedic discharge volume. The 5,524 discharges from HSS was 41.6% higher than the 3,902 discharges from Florida Hospital, Orlando, which is the next highest volume hospital for orthopedics discharges. Out of the 1,364,880 orthopedics discharges from U.S. Medicare enrollees during the aforementioned timeframe, the discharges from Hospital for Special Surgery accounted for 0.40% of these discharges. With over 5,000 inpatient facilities in the U.S., 0.40% of discharges makes up a significant portion of the market share.

When we look more specifically at the rankings for orthopedic discharge volume for the state of New York alone, these market share values are inherently going to be substantially higher. Between October 2015 - September 2016, Hospital for Special Surgery accounted for nearly 6% of all orthopedic discharges from New York residents enrolled in Medicare. With over 200 hospitals in New York alone, this is a very impressive statistic. For reference, the next highest volume hospital in New York state for orthopedic discharges is North Shore University Hospital, where the discharges there accounted for nearly 3% of New York Medicare enrollees' orthopedic discharges.

Orthopedic Inpatient Discharge Volume RankHospital NameCityState Total Medicare Orthopedic Inpatient Discharges % Of New York's Orthopedic Discharges
All New York Hospitals 66,270100.00
1Hospital for Special SurgeryNew YorkNew York 3,7605.67
2North Shore University HospitalManhassetNew York 1,9582.95
3Tisch Hospital (NYU Langone Health)New YorkNew York 1,9112.88
4St. Joseph's Hospital Health CenterSyracuseNew York 1,2141.83
5Montefiore Medical CenterBronxNew York 1,1911.80
6St. Peter's HospitalAlbanyNew York 1,1261.70
7Long Island Jewish Medical CenterNew Hyde ParkNew York 1,0941.65
8NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Medical CenterNew YorkNew York 1,0731.62
9Albany Medical CenterAlbanyNew York 1,0691.61
10Staten Island University HospitalStaten IslandNew York 1,0581.60

When we take the number of national orthopedics discharges (5,524) for Hospital for Special Surgery and subtract the number of discharges from New York residents (3,760), we are left with 1,764, which represents the number of discharges at Hospital for Specialty Surgery that came from Medicare enrollees living outside of New York. This means that if only the orthopedic discharges at HSS from out-of-state residents accounted for the hospital's discharge volume, the hospital would still rank 39th in orthopedic discharge volume.

Hospital for Special Surgery is known as one of the top orthopedic hospitals in the nation and, according to commentary from HSS Surgeon-in-Chief Emeritus, Dr. Thomas Peter Sculco, is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the United States. With that in mind, it is not surprising that a hospital with such an esteemed reputation ranks highest in the U.S. for orthopedic discharge volume among Medicare enrollees.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Jeffrey Maser

Jeffrey Maser is an analyst. He truly loves working with numbers and enjoys the challenge of turning healthcare data into a resource that real patients can use to help make important decisions. Jeff's passion for data will serve him well in his quest to become the top mind in Fantasy Hockey. He previously worked at Truven Health Analytics, now a part of IBM Watson Health, and is a graduate of Brandeis University.