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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Mortality Rates 71% Lower at Top-Rated Hospitals in
HealthGrades 2008 Study
Mortality rates improve nationally; annual study
examines 41 million hospitalization records at 5,000 hospitals over 3
years
 Oct. 16, 2007 – Patients have on average a 71
percent lower chance of dying at the nation’s top-rated hospitals
compared with the lowest-rated hospitals across 18 procedures and
conditions analyzed in the tenth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in
America Study, issued yesterday by HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings
company.
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The study, which documents a wide variation in the
quality of care between the highest-performing hospitals and all others,
also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of hospitals
rated with five stars by HealthGrades, 266,604 Medicare lives could
potentially have been saved over the three years studied.
The HealthGrades study of patient outcomes at the
nation’s approximately 5,000 hospitals, the most comprehensive annual
study of its kind, covers more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization
records over the years 2004 to 2006.
The study examines procedures and conditions
ranging from heart attack to pneumonia to valve-replacement surgery.
Based on the study, HealthGrades today made available its 2008 quality
ratings for virtually every hospital in the country at
www.healthgrades.com, a Web site designed to help individuals
research and compare local healthcare providers.
According to the study, mortality rates at
America’s hospitals have improved 11.8 percent from 2004 to 2006, with
the nation’s top-rated hospitals improving at a faster rate (12.8
percent) than the lowest rated hospitals (11.4 percent).
Of the 18 procedures and conditions studied, those
that saw the most improvement in mortality rates were
> pancreatitis (19.2 percent),
> pulmonary embolism (17.4 percent) and
> diabetic acidosis and coma (16.6 percent).
Those with the smallest improvement were
> resection/replacement of the abdominal aorta (0.4 percent),
> coronary interventional procedures such as angioplasties and
stents (0.8 percent) and
> treatment of heart attack (8.9 percent).
Full reports on mortality rate trends in each of
the 50 states and the District of Columbia are available in the study.
“While we are pleased to see that the hospital
industry’s focus on improving care quality has continued to reduce
mortality rates, a significant variation in quality among the nation’s
best and poorest-performing hospitals persists,” said Samantha Collier,
MD, HealthGrades’ chief medical officer and one of the authors of the
study.
“Concentrating on emulating practices from
exemplary hospitals can result in improvement. If this focus were
targeted to four key quality areas -- heart failure, respiratory
failure, sepsis, and pneumonia -- the nation could achieve up to a
50-percent reduction in potentially preventable deaths.”
The study also found wide variation in
risk-adjusted mortality at the state and regional levels:
● Across all procedures and conditions, the
average number of states performing statistically significantly better
than predicted was 14, while an average of 19 states performed
statistically significantly worse than predicted.
● The region with the lowest overall
risk-adjusted mortality was the East North Central Region (IL, IN, MI,
OH and WI) while the East South Central region (AL, KY, MS and TN) had
the highest mortality.
● The region with the most overall improvement
for all procedures and conditions was the West South Central region (AR,
LA, OK and TX), where the risk-adjusted mortality dropped by 13.5
percent. The least improvement was seen in the Mountain region (AZ, CO,
ID, MT, NE, NV, NM, UT, and WY), with a decline of 8.8 percent.
● The East North Central region (IL, IN, MI, OH,
and WI), had the highest percentage of best-performing hospitals – those
hospitals that are among the best 15 percent for risk-adjusted mortality
overall – at 26 percent.
● Less than seven percent of hospitals within the
East South Central region (AL, KY, MS, and TN) and the New England
region (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, and VT) were top-performing hospitals.
In the study’s analysis of mortality rates, the
following 18 procedures and conditions were analyzed:
> atrial fibrillation,
> bowel obstruction,
> chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
> coronary bypass surgery,
> coronary interventional procedures (angioplasty/stent),
> diabetic acidosis and coma,
> gastrointestinal bleed,
> gastrointestinal surgeries and procedures,
> heart attack,
> heart failure,
> pancreatitis,
> pneumonia,
> pulmonary embolism,
> resection/replacement of the abdominal aorta,
> respiratory failure,
> sepsis,
> stroke, and
> valve replacement surgery.
Editor’s Notes:
● The full study, along with its methodology and
state-by-state hospital-quality statistics, can be found at
www.healthgrades.com.
● PDF:
Click Here
HealthGrades’ Star Ratings of Hospitals
On its Web site, HealthGrades offers, free to
consumers, quality ratings of 28 procedures and treatments for virtually
every hospital in the country. The Web site is designed so that
consumers can easily compare patient outcomes at their local hospitals
for procedures ranging from aortic aneurysm repair to bypass surgery.
Each hospital receives a star rating based on its patient outcomes in
terms of mortality or complication rates for each procedure or
treatment. Hospitals with outcomes that are above average to a
statistically significant degree receive a five-star rating. Hospitals
with average outcomes receive a three-star rating, and hospitals with
outcomes that are below average receive a one-star rating. Because no
two hospitals or their patients’ risk profiles are alike, HealthGrades
employs extensive risk-adjustment algorithms to ensure that it is making
analogous comparisons.
About HealthGrades
Health Grades, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGRD) is the leading
healthcare ratings organization, providing ratings and profiles of
hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. Millions of consumers and many
of the nation’s largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on
HealthGrades’ independent ratings, advisory services and
decision-support resources to make healthcare decisions based on the
quality and cost of care. More information on the company can be found
at
www.healthgrades.com.
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