With U.S. News Hospital Rankings Delayed, PatientBank Releases National Scorecard To Evaluate Medical Records Departments At Hospitals Across The U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PatientBank, an emerging technology platform for gathering and sharing medical records, today released a scorecard of hospitals throughout the United States based on the performance and compliance of hospitals' medical records departments. Over the last year, the company has processed medical records requests to over 6,900 hospitals across the United States. The company developed the rankings in an effort to bring transparency to an aspect of hospital quality that is often overlooked and highlight the hospitals that are adding ease and efficiency to a process that can be extremely complicated for patients. The PatientBank rankings come on the heels of the announcement by U.S. News & World Report that their annual hospital ratings, which traditionally come out August 1^st, would be delayed at least a week due to data errors.

Based on PatientBank's scoring formula, South Lake Hospital, located in Clermont, Florida; Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center in Downey, California; and Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida shared the top spot. All three hospitals scored a total of 8.5 out of a possible 10.

"Medical records performance is a critical yet often overlooked factor of hospital quality," said Paul Fletcher-Hill, CEO of PatientBank. "With the release of this national scorecard, we're hoping to celebrate hospitals around the country that excel in this area, while also bringing more transparency and focus to the medical records process in general."

Top 10: National Hospital Rankings and Scores

A full list of PatientBank's national hospital scores is available on the company's website.

PatientBank developed the following guidelines for measuring the effectiveness of hospitals in responding to patient requests for records:

• Speed: How long does the hospital normally take to respond to requests for records, ranging from 1 (slow) to 10 (fast)? Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), hospitals are given 30 days to respond to patients' medical records requests.
• Fees: How much does the hospital charge patients for medical records, ranging from 1 (no fee) to 10 (very expensive)? Hospitals are allowed to charge patients a reasonable, cost-based fee under HIPAA. The PatientBank score considers per page cost and whether the hospital also charges prepayment.
• Fulfillment: How capable is the hospital in returning medical records in the form and format patients ask for? Is the hospital able to return records in an electronic format? The range is from 1 (very limited) to 10 (very flexible). According to HIPAA, a hospital is required to return patient records in the form and format requested, if readily producible.  
• Delivery: How does the hospital allow patients to submit requests for records (for example, by fax or email)? Are there additional requirements for the request (for example, to fill out the hospital's own form or to submit prepayment)? These policies are ranked from 1 (strict) to 10 (flexible). HIPAA does not permit hospitals to require patients to use only certain delivery methods, such as mail or in-person delivery.  

Looking at the U.S. News & World Report's 2016-17 Best Hospitals Honor Roll, it is evident that medical records performance is routinely overlooked, even by the country's best hospitals. While some hospitals on the US News Top 20 list also excel in medical records performance (for example, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago and Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C. score in the top 90% percentile nationwide), in aggregate the U.S. News Top 20 scores an average of 5.9 out of 10 on medical record performance, which is only as high or higher than 60.5% of the hospitals in the U.S., according to PatientBank's ranking. A list of U.S. News & World Report's 2016-17 Best Hospitals Honor Roll with corresponding PatientBank scores and percentile ranks is also available on the company's website at: www.patientbank.us/us_news 

About PatientBank

Founded in 2015, PatientBank helps people gather and share medical records online. The company's platform allows users to order medical records from any healthcare facility in the country. While requests for medical records are normally submitted via fax or mail, PatientBank brings the process online, making it easy to request and share medical records in a secure and convenient way. PatientBank is based in San Francisco and is backed by world-class investors, including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures. The company has processed over 60,000 medical records requests, 14,000 of which have occurred in just the last month (July 2017).

Media Contact: Patrick Muncie (Tusk Strategies); [email protected]

SOURCE PatientBank