Fort Worth’s JPS hospital is no Mayo Clinic. It’s better, this national study finds
Fort Worth’s JPS Health Network is no Mayo Clinic.
It’s better.
That’s according to Washington Monthly, a nonprofit magazine that has ranked JPS as the No. 1 hospital in the nation.
The JPS Health Network is Tarrant County’s tax-supported health care system, and includes John Peter Smith Hospital — the only level 1 trauma center west of Dallas and east of Lubbock — and dozens of community clinics. The network has 7,200 workers, making it one of the largest employers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
The distinction has already boosted JPS’ reputation in the medical community, after the Washington Monthly report was released in July, JPS president and chief executive officer Robert Earley said.
“The reaction has been great,” Earley said in an interview. “We will interview job candidates, and they will mention it. We brought in a nursing executive from Louisiana. We brought in another gentleman to deal with our labs from Houston and another gentleman from Kansas, and in a lot of those interviews, they will say, ‘Yeah, we noticed that you’re the No. 1 hospital in the United States.’ That’s such a wonderful tribute to us.”
The staff at Washington Monthly talked for years about a better way to rank hospitals beyond the usual annual publications such as U.S. News & World Report’s yearly rankings. (Several of the staff previously worked at U.S. News & World Report, which annually ranks hospitals and has included prestigious facilities such as the Mayo Clinic, which is known for its ability to treat difficult conditions, in its honor roll for decades.)
So in a partnership with the Lown Institute, Washington Monthly created a ranking system that factored not only the clinical prestige of a hospital, but also its cost-effectiveness and service to the surrounding community. JPS was given high marks for caring for people living near the hospital, regardless of their ability to pay, and for taking on a leadership role in the community.
In its publication, Washington Monthly explained its rankings this way: “You might ask yourself, how is it possible for a public safety-net hospital to out-rank the finest private hospitals across the United States? What Americans should be asking is, why can’t more hospitals be like JPS?“
”Shouldn’t every person in this country have access to a hospital that provides high-quality care, welcomes all comers regardless of wealth and insurance status, and contributes to the larger health of the community?”
JPS ranked No. 1 in several categories — including best overall, best among teaching hospitals and best among safety net hospitals.
JPS ranked in the top 1% of hospitals in civic leadership, in the top 10% in avoiding overuse of low-value care and the top 17% for quality of care.
Ranking No. 1 also has boosted morale at JPS, especially at a time when many employees are feeling the pressure of dealing with the COVID pandemic, Earley said.
“When you get 1.2 million patient encounters a year, it can take its toll on you,” Earley said. “It was very nice to hear other people appreciate your work.”
Other hospitals in the North Texas region that achieved high marks in the Washington Monthly rankings included Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, which finished ninth overall, and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne, which was ranked 18th overall.
Other Texas hospitals that fared well included Seton Northwest Hospital in Austin (No. 4 overall) and Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center in Houston (eighth overall).
Mayo Clinic did finish No. 100 on the list of top teaching hospitals. Washington Monthly officials noted that the Mayo Clinic is “top notch” for specialty care such as organ transplants, cancer treatments and open-heart procedures, but scored low on civic leadership and value of care. (The latter is a ranking of how hospitals overuse certain medical procedures that are believed to have a low value in treatment.)
Paul Glastris, Washington Monthly editor in chief, said in an interview that he had never heard of JPS Health Network until the research for the edition featuring the best hospitals was concluded.
He said he and his colleagues pursued the hospital rankings because they wanted to give credit to health care providers who serve people of all incomes — whether they have health insurance or not — while still being cost-effective.
Glastris said that hospitals included in the rankings have responded with “just a lot of gratefulness for recognizing the balancing act that they’ve been able to pull off, between saving lives, saving money and serving everyone.”
“It’s very hard to do,” he said.
