 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Want to make sure you leave the hospital alive? Your best bet will likely be a center with a five star rating, according to a new report.
The independent health care ratings organization HealthGrades released the latest statistics. It found patients are 70 percent less likely to die in a top rated hospital than in a hospital at the bottom of the ratings.
Text Continues Below
Among the key findings:
- The average hospital mortality rate improved by about 14 percent from 2005 to 2007.
- The risk of death at a five star hospital was 70 percent less than the risk at a one star hospital and 50 percent less than the U.S. hospital average.
- If all hospitals performed at the level of a five star hospital, nearly 240,000 lives could have been saved.
- Four conditions were linked to 54 percent of the potentially preventable deaths: bloodstream infections, heart failure, pneumonia and respiratory failure.
- The East North Central region, consisting of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, had the most five star hospitals and the lowest overall death rates.
The 11th annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study was based on a review of more than 41 million Medicare beneficiaries who were treated for 17 procedures and conditions at about 5,000 hospitals across the country during 2005-2007.
SOURCE: HealthGrades press release, published online October 14, 2008
Sign up for a free weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs called First to Know by clicking here.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
|
.gif)
