TDH stays anonymous for hospital report card

Timmins and District Hospital (TDH) has chosen not to reveal itself on the Fraser Institutes annual hospital report card that compares patient care.
TDH had previously been reported in the annual listing and had shown progressively better “scores” when compared to other hospitals in Ontario.
Nadeem Esmail, the Director of Health System Performance Studies for the institute who authored the report, told The Timmins Times that on the Hospital Mortality Index for 2002-03, the Timmins hospital was ranked 22nd in Ontario.
Then in 2003-04 it was ranked 14th. In 2004-05, TDH ranked as eighth in the province. When asked to comment on the Timmins figures, Esmail said ”there’s nothing wrong with them.”
“You can always do better than eighth, you can always do better than 22nd but its not horrible,”he said.
Esmail says TDH was indeed rated for the past year, but chose to stay anonymous.
“I think what’s really interesting is that Timmins was participating and this year they have opted not to have their name published beside their performance result.”
Esmail said he could not comment on why TDH, or the majority of Ontario hospitals for that matter, chose not to go public with their standings.
“Well you know I can’t speak to their motivation. They have simply decided to not have their hospital name published alongside their result, unlike the 29 hospitals in Ontario who should be applauded for stepping up and embracing the values of accountability and transparency by having their names published alongside their performance result,” he said.
“So for 29 hospitals it really is wonderful for the patients of those hospitals and the residents in those areas that they can see the performance of their hospitals,” he said.
“CONE OF SILENCE”
“For everyone else going to the other 107 hospitals, unfortunately this cone of silence has descended,” he added.
Timmins and District Hospital was offered the opportunity to provide a comment on this story. Hospital administrator Esko Vainio was out of town and unavailable for comment this week.
TDH ‘ABOVE AVERAGE’
In October TDH released the results of a Patient Satisfaction Survey. It revealed that between April 2005 and March 2006, the hospital was awarded “top marks” and was rated above average.