Choose Hospitals on Performance Data, Consumers Urged
John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media , October 20, 2015
When compared with one-star hospitals, which have higher risk-adjusted complication and mortality rates, patients at hospitals with a five-star rating have a 71% lower chance of dying, according to Healthgrades.
Healthgrades is urging consumers to “do their homework” before choosing a hospital.
A report released Tuesday, Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation, notes that since 2011, one-in-six Medicare patients got their care from a hospital that had earned a one-star designation from Healthgrades. Had many of these patients done some research, they probably could have found a higher-rated hospital nearby for their particular procedure, says Evan Marks, chief strategy officer at Denver-based Healthgrades.
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“The real message to consumers is to try to avoid hospitals with a one-star rating, especially if they can travel to a place that is not too far away or inconvenient for them,” Marks says, “where they can at least find a hospital that is rated three stars or ideally one that is rated five stars. By the way, three stars is not bad. That means a hospital is performing as expected.”
When compared with one-star hospitals, which have higher risk-adjusted complication and mortality rates, Marks says patients at hospitals with a five-star rating have a 71% lower chance of dying, and a 65% lower change of experiencing complications during their stay. If all hospitals met the five-star ranking, Marks says, more than 222,000 lives potentially could have been saved since 2011.
“It’s a difficult challenge because consumers think about hospitals from a reputational standpoint, ‘Oh that’s a good hospital. That’s where I’ll get my care,'” Marks says. “They don’t often think about the fact that different hospitals have different outcomes for differ procedures and service lines and you may want to consider different options based on this information.”
Healthgrades says it continues to find “significant variation in health outcomes” among hospitals throughout the nation, and in local service areas. For example, outcomes among hospitals in Denver, CO for hip replacement surgery showed that complication rates varied from 3.9% to 13.6%.
Not all hospitals are good at every procedure, Marks says, which could further confuse patients. In the Chicago area, 14 hospitals received a five-star rating for treating heart attacks, but eight of those same hospitals received a one-star rating for knee replacement surgeries.
SOURCE: http://healthleadersmedia.com/print/QUA-321847/Choose-Hospitals-on-Performance-Data-Consumers-Urged
