West Hills Hospital and Medical Center is a hospital located in the western San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County. It is a full-service acute care hospital offering a wide range of medical and surgical services. It is renowned for its Women’s Center which offers the latest in diagnostic technology including digital mammography and ultrasound and also for its Surgical Center that is known for a comprehensive menu of procedures in specialties such as orthopedic surgery, hand surgery (done by The Hand Center of Southern California), gastroenterology and gynecology. The hospital is committed to patient safety and offers a number of innovations such as medication bar coding.
The hospital is rated by Healthgrades as a “Top 100 Hospital” for 2022-2023 and was ranked highest in the state for cardiac care in the same time frame. Healthgrades measures clinical outcomes, safety and patient satisfaction. It uses objective information to help consumers compare hospitals and make informed decisions about where to receive treatment. The ratings are based on Medicare and Medicaid data that includes claims for inpatient and outpatient procedures and surgeries as well as information about how often patients experience certain infections such as central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections from abdominal hysterectomy or colon surgery, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) blood laboratory-identified events, and Clostridium difficile (C.diff) laboratory-identified events.
CMS provides a standardized metric for hospital costs to compare them across the country. This metric is called the Medicare Spending per Beneficiary (MSPB). It is calculated as total Medicare Part A and B payments divided by the number of beneficiary days in the hospital. A lower MSPB means that a hospital charges less than the national average.
A higher MSPB indicates that a hospital charges more than the national average. The MSPB is not a perfect indicator of actual hospital costs because it does not take into account all the different ways that hospitals are reimbursed for their services. For example, some hospitals are paid a flat fee for a heart attack or pneumonia episode and others are reimbursed for the specific services they provide to each patient.
Despite these limitations, the MSPB is still a useful tool for comparisons. This metric is especially important for consumers who have private health insurance.
Residents of the area around the hospital have many options for dining and entertainment close by. It is a fairly walkable neighborhood, with nearby places like Four Oaks Park and Instant Replay. In addition, there are several gyms in the vicinity such as Positive Change Fitness, Carter Gym and Function First Fitness. There are also a number of bars and restaurants such as Scotland Yard, Cloud Nine Hookahs Lounge and more. The area also has a large number of coffee shops and diners. For the shopper, there are numerous boutiques nearby as well. Those who want to travel a little further can find a few shopping malls, such as the Sherman Oaks Galleria.