News

For the third year in a row, South Texas Health System’s inpatient rehabilitation departments at South Texas Health System McAllen and South Texas Health System Edinburg rank in the top 10% of inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in the United States, according to Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR), a not-for-profit organization considered a leader in medical rehabilitation outcomes data.

The inpatient rehabilitation departments at STHS provide comprehensive patient evaluation and treatment for a variety of health conditions including stroke, traumatic injuries and more, as well as offer education to patients and families related to their condition and the recovery process. They also work closely with other healthcare providers to ensure patient-appropriate individualized physical, occupational and speech therapy.

For their hard work and dedication to positive patient outcomes, the departments at STHS were jointly ranked in the top 10% among 861 IRFs that qualified to be ranked in the IRF database of Netsmart Technologies, Inc. (Netsmart), which looked at cases discharged between October 2022 and September 2023.

“Being recognized by UDSMR among the top 10% of its subscribing facilities is a remarkable accomplishment for our physical rehabilitation units at South Texas Health System,” said Ricardo Flores, System Rehab Administrator, South Texas Health System. “This success for the third consecutive year is not just a mark of excellence, it's a testament to the extraordinary collaboration between our two locations.

“Our team's dedication, hard work, and exceptional care have not only elevated the quality of services we provide but have also expanded our reach, ensuring more patients have access to top-tier rehabilitation care,” Flores added. “This achievement highlights our commitment to quality, compassionate care and showcases the significant role our facility plays in the healthcare community. It's a reflection of our team's united efforts in setting and surpassing the highest standards in healthcare."

The rankings were determined using Netsmart’s program evaluation model (PEM), which is a case-mix-adjusted and severity-adjusted tool that provides facilities with a composite performance score and percentile ranking that is drawn from over 80% of all IRFs in the country.

Those scores are based on data that indicate efficiency and effectiveness from multiple sources — the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ reporting tool for the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Prospective Payment System (IRF PPS) and Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Quality Reporting Program (IRF QRP). The goal of the PEM Version 2 Report Card is to recognize high-performing facilities for their delivery of quality patient care that’s effective, efficient, timely and patient-centered.

“South Texas Health System has demonstrated its commitment to providing efficient and exceptional patient care, and we are delighted to present them with this esteemed award,” said Stephanie Stockton, senior data analyst in the Analytical Services Group at Netsmart. “As the creator and steward of the nation’s largest database for rehabilitation outcomes, UDSMR actively collaborates with industry leaders to establish and promote best practices. The PEM Report Card was created to identify and recognize top-performing facilities, and it plays a pivotal role today in elevating performance standards across the nation. We look forward to working with STHS and other facilities across the nation as we collectively strive to advance care standards throughout the IRF industry.”

This is the 16th year that these awards have been issued to inpatient rehabilitation facilities. The original PEM Report Card was developed by Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR, LLC) as part of a proactive solution to the Institute of Medicine’s 2006 recommendation to Congress that every Medicare provider be reimbursed on a pay-for-performance basis.

The PEM Version 2 Report Card built upon the success of the original version, replacing certain effectiveness indicators with quality measures that were similar in nature and used in measuring IRF performance in the Medicare IRF QRP. The data used for this report was based on 12 months of data drawn from both Medicare and non-Medicare patients. The results were weighted and combined into a single composite score, and each facility was assigned a percentile rank from 0 to 100 relative to the other qualifying IRF subscribers in the UDS PRO® database.