(National City, CA – September 2, 2021) – Paradise Valley Hospital (PVH) is the top community hospital in the nation for community health investment, as measured by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index (lownhospitalsindex.org). The Lown Institute is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to improving the health care system of the United States. Their yearly Hospitals Index is meant to add transparency to and provide accountability to the nation’s healthcare systems. The Lown Institute examined 3,641 hospitals across the nation and determined each hospital’s “Community Benefits” score based on three components: charity care given as a ratio of hospital expenses, Medicaid revenue as a ratio of total revenue, and the percentage of hospital expenses spent on community investment. PVH scored especially high on the first two components, and that allowed the hospital to find itself as the number one hospital in the nation at serving its community. Data sources include hospital cost reports filed with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and IRS 990 forms, both from 2018. Lown also awarded PVH an “A” grade for helping their patients avoid unnecessary and expensive medical procedures.
Top 10 Hospitals for Best Overall Community Health Investment
1. Paradise Valley Hospital National City, CA
2. Elmhurst Hospital Center, Elmhurst, NY
3. Queens Hospital Center, Jamaica, NY
4. Metropolitan Hospital Center, New York City
5. Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, Brooklyn, NY
6. Leonard D. Chabert Medical Center, Houma, LA
7. NYC Health + Hospitals Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY
8. Lallie Kemp Medical Center, Independence, LA
9. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, CA
10. The University Hospital, Newark, NJ
Paradise Valley Hospital, a member of Prime Healthcare since 2007, was founded by the Seventh Day Adventist Church over 115 years ago with a strong mission to care for all that they serve. This culture of care has persisted with the hospital over the decades even as the community it serves has evolved and its ownership has changed. PVH’s mission to “deliver compassionate, quality care” has only strengthened over the years. This is apparent in the many free community health classes and health counseling it offers; the amount of charitable care it provides to patients who are incapable of paying; to, most recently, the proactive and aggressive actions it took to address COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. Paradise Valley Hospital was one of the first hospitals in San Diego County to open its doors to transfer COVID-19 patients from neighboring Imperial County when that area’s hospitals were overrun by victims of the virus. “I truly believe that most of the people that work here are here because they want to be a part of a larger purpose,” says Neerav Jadeja, PVH’s Chief Executive Officer. “People who work in healthcare tend to be this way already, but when you enter Paradise Valley Hospital you can feel this shared dedication. You can’t help but internalize this and have it inform every aspect of your work.”
The community PVH primarily serves, National City, is comprised of many young, working-class, immigrant families. It’s considered a medically underserved community with 18% of the population living under the federal poverty level. Paradise Valley Hospital is the only hospital within this community, with two other nearest hospitals located roughly four miles away in another community to the South and South-West. To many of the people of National City, Paradise Valley Hospital has been the primary hospital that they have gone to for most of their lives. But because roughly 14% of this population below 65 years do not have health insurance, the hospital endures some hardship providing their care. Yet Paradise Valley Hospital never hesitates to do so.
What’s notable about PVH’s ranking on the Lown Institute’s Hospital Index is that the hospital is the only private, for-profit entity in the top 10. Five of the top 10 hospitals are members of the New York City Health + Hospitals public healthcare system, a publicly funded system that receives 70% of its revenue from Medicare. The rest are public not-for-profit community hospitals with explicit mandates to provide care for underserved communities.
“We are a true community hospital,” explains Neerav Jadeja. “Many of our neighbors grow up in the shadow of the hospital, having it a part of their lives from childhood to adulthood. A large number of the people that work here are from this community, so in a very real sense, when we care for the people of this community, we are caring for our own.”