NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Southcoast Health today announced that it has again been recognized as a top-ranked Community Value Provider by Cleverley + Associates, a leading healthcare financial firm.

“We are proud to once again be recognized by Cleverley + Associates for the value and benefits we provide to our region,” said Keith A. Hovan, President & CEO of Southcoast Health, which received this recognition in 2015, as well. “As a not-for-profit healthcare system, our primary mission is to provide high-quality care to patients and add significant value to our communities. As the region’s largest employer and economic contributor, we take immense pride in our role of positively impacting the overall quality of life for everyone living on the South Coast. We measure our comprehensive success by our clinical excellence, positive patient experiences, impact on an individual’s quality of life, the value we offer patients, and the amount of resources we invest back into our communities.”

Cleverley + Associates released the findings as part of its new publication: State of the Hospital Industry – 2016 Edition. Written by William O. Cleverley, Ph.D., a noted expert in healthcare finance, the State of the Hospital Industry reports selected measures of hospital financial performance and discusses the critical factors that lie behind them. The publication focuses on the U.S. acute-care hospital industry over a three-year time period (2012-14).

“Both our short- and long-term business plans center around making sound strategic investments that will further enable us to reinvest in the communities that we serve,” said Robert Tarola, CFO for Southcoast Health. “Organizationally, we strive for optimal efficiency and turn those savings into expanded access and service offerings to clinically excellent care, additional jobs, technological advancements and infrastructure improvements.”

For the thirteenth year, the 2016 State of the Hospital Industry reports an exclusive measure developed by Cleverley + Associates: the Community Value Index (CVI). The CVI is a proprietary index created to offer a measure of the value that a hospital provides to its community. The report outlines the data used to calculate the CVI as well as provides a list of the top 100 hospitals.

“The topic of hospital value is increasingly being discussed. Issues of pricing and community benefit have been well-publicized but little has been offered to measure the broad scope of value,” said James Cleverley, co-author. “In response, the Community Value Index was created to provide an assessment of a hospital’s performance in four areas: financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care, pricing, and quality. Fundamentally, the CVI suggests that a hospital provides value to the community when it is financially viable, is appropriately reinvesting back into the facility, maintains a low cost structure, has reasonable charges, and provides high quality care to patients.”

For more information, call Cleverley + Associates at 888-779-5663 or visit www.cleverleyassociates.com.