Hospital quality
It Makes a Life Long Difference
Report identifies top quality hospitals
By Anne Harding2 hours, 3 minutes ago
“People treated at high-quality hospitals are more likely to survive and less likely to develop complications, according to a new report on more than 5,000 US hospitals.
“Do your homework and do your research before you check in,” Dr. Samantha Collier, senior vice president for medical affairs at HealthGrades, the Golden, Colorado-based independent health care ratings company that produced the rankings, told Reuters Health.
Patients who went to one of the 266 top hospitals were 28 percent more likely to survive treatment for 16 different diagnoses or procedures, including coronary bypass surgery, heart attack, pneumonia, and stroke, according to HealthGrades’ fifth annual Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study. They were 5 percent less likely to develop complications after 10 procedures, including total knee replacement, hip fracture repair, prostatectomy and gall bladder removal.
The report covers 40 million Medicare hospital discharges from 2003-2005. Based on the findings, HealthGrades says, 158,264 lives could have been saved and 12,410 complications avoided if all of these patients went to a top hospital for care.”
The real food for thought comes right after the legislature killed funding for a new med school in Athens, which could have indirectly created a better hospital in Athens.
Georgia has four five star hopsitals, which is up from one two years ago.
http://www.healthgrades.com/
