By Peggy Peck, Managing Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
February 06, 2006
GOLDEN, Colo., Feb 6 – A health-care rating company here said today that patients treated at hospitals that receive its top ranking have a 27% lower risk of dying during their hospital stay.
Moreover, according to HealthGrades, which compiles quality report cards on hospitals and doctors and sells those reports to consumers, patients treated at its top-ranked hospitals also have a 14% lower risk of complications.
HealthGrades used the Medicare discharge records from 2002, 2003 and 2004 to rank hospitals based on overall performance of risk-adjusted outcomes associated with 26 common Medicare inpatient procedures and diagnoses.
According to the HealthGrades annual Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence Study, only 277 of 5,122 acute care hospitals ranked this year were designated as “Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence,” a designation reserved for hospitals that score in the top 5% of HealthGrades’ ranking system.
The report claimed that if all patients with any of the 26 conditions studied had been treated at these top-ranked hospitals from 2002 to 2004, there may have been 152,966 lives saved and 21,896 patients may have avoided a major post-operative complication.
The 26 conditions studied included atrial fibrillation, back and neck surgery (spinal fusion), bowel obstruction, carotid endarterectomy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery bypass surgery, diabetic ketoacidosis and coma, heart attack, heart failure, hip fracture repair, prostatectomy, sepsis, stroke, total hip replacement, and valve replacement surgery.
According to the report, the five areas in which the top ranked hospitals achieved the greatest reduction in mortality were:
Diabetic ketoacidosis and coma, which was 35% lower.
Pancreatitis, which was 32% lower.
Community-acquired pneumonia, which was 31% lower.
Heart failure, which was 29% lower.
Coronary artery bypass surgery, which was also 29% lower.
Samantha Collier, M.D., who is HealthGrades’ vice-president of medical affairs, said the report this year points out “a clear and profound divergence between the best hospitals and all others.”
Moreover, she characterized the divide between the top ranked hospitals and the majority of U.S. hospitals as a growing “quality chasm.” She urged “all consumers, if possible, to do their homework before checking into a hospital.”
Primary source: HealthGrades
Source reference: HealthGrades Fourth Annual Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence Study February 2006.