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Hospitals reduce
elderly mortality rate, though gap between best, worst hospitals in
U.S. widened by about 5% in 2005, study finds
[Oct 17, 2006]-- Patients ages 65 and older
last year were 69% less likely to die at hundreds of the best
hospitals than hundreds of the worst, according to a study conducted
by Colorado-based
Health Grades,
Bloomberg/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
For the annual study, the health industry ratings
company reviewed 41 million medical records of Medicare
beneficiaries to rate the quality of care at 5,170 hospitals. Health
Grades calculated overall hospital performance by analyzing the top
and bottom 10% to 15% of facilities, which were ranked by mortality
rates for 28 types of treatments.
The study found that hospitals overall reduced
mortality rates by 7.9% from 2002 through 2005, although some
hospitals had larger reductions than others. According to the study,
the gap between mortality rates at the best and worst hospitals
widened by 5% last year.
Study author Samantha Collier said, "Although
everybody's improving, the best are getting better, and the bottom
isn't improving as fast." Collier added that the best performing
hospitals were able to reduce mortality rates during common
procedures by providing more information to patients and more
performance-based pay to executives.
Louis Evan Teichholz -- chief of cardiology at
Hackensack University Medical
Center in New Jersey, which was ranked among the top 5%
of facilities in a separate Health Grades study -- said that
hospitals could improve by establishing policies and reminders about
how each medical case should be handled.
Teichholz said that hospitals could lower health
care costs by reducing the number of complications, such as
infections. According to Collier, more than 302,000 lives could have
been saved between 2003 and 2005 if all hospitals had performed as
well as the top ones.
Heart failure, pneumonia, respiratory failure and
blood infections accounted for nearly half of preventable deaths,
according to the report. Collier said the findings were intended to
help patients choose the best care for their elective treatments
(Larkin,
Bloomberg/Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/17).
The
study is available
online. Note: You
must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report.