FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital is one of the best in North Carolina and is at the forefront of “a revolution” in how patients and their employers pay for care, according to annual rankings reported this month by Business North Carolina.

“Value-based health care is coming,” the magazine says in its March issue, “which means hospitals will increasingly be paid for how successfully they treat patients, not merely for how often they treat them.”

The magazine noted that for the last year, CaroMont and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s largest insurer, have replaced gimpy knees for a fixed price. FirstHealth will ask Medicare this spring to let it replace hips and knees and perform heart-bypass surgery on the same basis.

FirstHealth CEO David J. Kilarski told Business North Carolina that tying reimbursement to quality “certainly ups the stakes for hospitals.”

“These are things we’ve prided ourselves on doing better than a lot of surrounding institutions, so I’d like to think we’re doing it to provide better patient care and not just because it’s going to increasingly determine our reimbursement,” Kilarski told the magazine. “But no doubt, the stakes have been increased.”

Moore Regional tied for seventh with Duke University Hospital in Durham and Park Ridge Health in Hendersonville in the Business North Carolina rankings.

“FirstHealth has consistently been recognized as a top-performing hospital over the years in Business North Carolina and other publications,” Kilarski said last week in a statement. “I give credit to our entire staff for their expertise and commitment to giving our patients not only high-quality health care but also the personal caring touch that makes our facilities so special.”

The rankings are based on Medicare and Medicaid data; North Carolina Hospital Association and other sources for 12 criteria; readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia; patient-safety records and hospital-acquired conditions; and independent ratings by Consumers Union, The Leapfrog Group and U.S. News & World Report.

“FirstHealth’s recognition as a Business North Carolina top hospital and U.S. News & World Report Standout Hospital in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, gastroenterology and geriatrics is confirmation that our physicians and staff have created an internal culture of excellence,” said Dr. John F. Krahnert Jr., FirstHealth chief medical officer. “We appreciate these acknowledgements, but we are most proud of the positive impact our excellent outcomes have on our patients and their families.”

Moore Regional narrowly missed a three-way tie for top hospital in patient satisfaction, instead finishing tied for fourth with four other hospitals.

The recognition comes as a multidisciplinary team at the hospital focuses its efforts to improve patient satisfaction scores. Two strategies that have been implemented include “No Pass Zone” and “Rounding with a Purpose.”

The No Pass Zone ensures that no one passes a patient’s call light without responding and includes all FirstHealth employees, volunteers and medical staff.

The Rounding With a Purpose project focuses on unit staff checking on patients regularly and asking specific — “purposeful” — questions related to patient positioning, pain management, bathroom assistance, and ensuring patient items are close at hand.

“FirstHealth has taken many steps in our journey toward setting the standard for an extraordinarily high-quality patient experience,” said Cindy McDonald, vice president of quality for FirstHealth of the Carolinas. “Our recognition as a top hospital in patient satisfaction is affirmation of the tremendous work done by our physicians and staff to provide the best possible care experience for our patients.”

Daniel Barnes, president of FirstHealth Physician Group, said the companywide recognition was due to the “collaboration and dedication of the entire FirstHealth team.”

“As I work alongside the staff at FirstHealth to take care of our patients, I see the quality of care our physicians and nurses provide every day to our patients,” Barnes said. “I am pleased that their accomplishments are being recognized once again.”

Contact Ted M. Natt Jr. at tnatt@thepilot.com.