Dr. Melissa Dirst-Roberts and Dr. Stephen R. Wilber Reported the Lowest Average Length of Stay for Pneumonia Inpatients out of All Arkansas Physicians in 2016
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By: Jeffrey Maser Feb. 19, 2018
Dexur analysts recently examined pneumonia discharges from Medicare inpatients in 2016 and found that Dr. Melissa Dirst-Roberts, of Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, reported the lowest average length of stay (LOS) in Arkansas at 3.3 days. Dr. Stephen R. Wilber, who practices at Baxter Regional Medical Center along Dr. Dirst-Roberts, reported the 2nd lowest average LOS at 3.6 days. Dr. Linda Kiatoukaysy of Northwest Medical Center - Springdale ranked 3rd with a 3.7 day average length of stay while Dr. William Wesley Thorpe of Baptist Health Medical Center - North Little Rock ranked 4th with a 3.8 day average LOS. Dr. Gregory S. Harrington, who also practices at Baptist Health Medical Center - North Little Rock, ranked 5th with an average length of stay of 4 days. These five physicians were the only physicians in the state to report an average LOS of 4 days or fewer for pneumonia. The average length of stay was 5.47 days for both the nation as well as for Arkansas Medicare enrollees, specifically.
Arkansas physicians were included in the rankings if they accounted for at least 11 discharges for DRG-193 (Simple Pneumonia And Pleurisy With Major Complication or Comorbidity) between January - December 2016. Pneumonia is comprised of DRG-193, DRG-194, and DRG-195 where DRG-193 was the highest volume DRG of the three diagnosis related groups. While U.S. Medicare enrollees accounted for 145,763 discharges for DRG-193 and 142,542 DRG-194 discharges (Simple Pneumonia And Pleurisy With Complication or Comorbidity), they only combined for 52,644 discharges for DRG-195 (Simple Pneumonia And Pleurisy Without Complication or Comorbidity/Major Complication or Comorbidity).
Although Dr. Dirst-Roberts ranked first for lowest average length of stay, she ranked 12th highest in discharge volume for DRG-193. However, no other physician in the top five for lowest average length of stay ranked higher in discharge volume than Dr. Dirst-Roberts. The physician with the lowest length of stay who also accounted for more discharges than Dr. Dirst-Roberts was Dr. Daniel C. Goodwin, who ranked 6th in discharge volume and 6th in average length of stay with a 4.2 day average LOS. Dr. Goodwin practices at Baxter Regional Medical Center along with Dr. Dirst-Roberts and Dr. Wilber. Another Dexur article, which examines average length of stay for heart failure, also features Baxter Regional’s Dr. Dirst-Roberts, Dr. Goodwin, and Dr. Wilber along with Dr. Richard D. Schmidt at the top of the rankings.
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- DRG-193 Average Length of Stay for the 10 Arkansas Physicians with the Lowest DRG-193 Average Length of Stay between January - December 2016
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