HealthGrades: Best-performing hospitals earn their stars
Hospitals awarded five stars by HealthGrades in 2011 provided better care than their lower-scoring counterparts. According to a HealthGrades report released Oct. 18, patients had a 73 percent lower risk of dying in a five-star hospital than in a one-star hospital.
Publicly traded HealthGrades annually reports quality rankings on nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals and profiles on more than 800,000 physicians, and research shows patients are using the information to make decisions.
According to the Pew Internet Project, 59 percent of all adults in the U.S. look for health information online. Additionally, 47 percent are also looking to find information on doctors and 38 percent are looking for information on hospitals. In 2003, just 21 percent of internet users looked for information on hospitals or doctors.
HealthGrades' 2011 report indicated that patients had a 54 percent lower risk of dying in a five-star ranked hospital compared to the average in the U.S. Among nine common procedures studied, a patient was 63 percent less likely to experience in-hospital complications than patients at a one-star ranked hospital, and 43 percent lower chance of developing an in-hospital complication than the average in the U.S.
If all Medicare patients from 2008 through 2010 had been treated at five-star hospitals, HealthGrades estimates, more than 240,000 lives could have been saved, and more than 164,000 inhospital complications could have been avoided.
HealthGrades determines their rankings by using 40 million hospital records provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and evaluating hospitals on risk-adjusted rates of mortality and in-hospital complications.
Click here for more information about the HealthGrades report.
Publicly traded HealthGrades annually reports quality rankings on nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals and profiles on more than 800,000 physicians, and research shows patients are using the information to make decisions.
According to the Pew Internet Project, 59 percent of all adults in the U.S. look for health information online. Additionally, 47 percent are also looking to find information on doctors and 38 percent are looking for information on hospitals. In 2003, just 21 percent of internet users looked for information on hospitals or doctors.
HealthGrades' 2011 report indicated that patients had a 54 percent lower risk of dying in a five-star ranked hospital compared to the average in the U.S. Among nine common procedures studied, a patient was 63 percent less likely to experience in-hospital complications than patients at a one-star ranked hospital, and 43 percent lower chance of developing an in-hospital complication than the average in the U.S.
If all Medicare patients from 2008 through 2010 had been treated at five-star hospitals, HealthGrades estimates, more than 240,000 lives could have been saved, and more than 164,000 inhospital complications could have been avoided.
HealthGrades determines their rankings by using 40 million hospital records provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and evaluating hospitals on risk-adjusted rates of mortality and in-hospital complications.
Click here for more information about the HealthGrades report.