I received my notice that the HealthGrades Report on hospital quality outcomes for 2014 was online. If you are not well versed in the HealthGrades ratings, it may come as a shock that your hospital is not as good as you think it is. Their hospital rating reports for specific procedures and diagnoses are compiled primarily from Medicare claim data, and it includes all hospitals that are Medicare participants.
Our nation generally agrees (97%) that having the correct information about our healthcare is paramount in making good healthcare decisions. According to a recent Harris Interactive Research survey, we are more likely to choose our hospital based on convenience/location (58%) and amount of co-pay (45%) than on quality outcome information (10%).
This year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported that expenditures for healthcare in the U.S. were $2.6 trillion and 17.9% of the gross domestic product. Of that expenditure, $814 billion went to hospitals and $515.5 billion went to physicians and clinical services. We have been told that health reform will reduce healthcare spending over the next 10 years and lower our premiums. If healthcare costs continue to rise why doesn’t the consumer shop for better, more affordable care?
HealthGrades was founded in 1998 and ever since they have been reporting on the quality and safety of our nation’s hospitals. The most recent survey just posted online at their website claims that in the time period 2010-2012 , an additional 234,252 lives could have been saved if all hospitals had operated at their highest rating level of 5 stars. HealthGrades rates the performance of hospitals on multiple procedures and diseases within the same institution.
The first thing I did was to go to their website and look up the hospital in my home town. What I found was frightening. My chances of survival in my hometown hospital with a heart attack were only a 2. However, if I were a patient in the same hospital with pneumonia, my chances of a good outcome were a 4. My hometown hospital only rated a 3 on the overall scale. Not a very comforting thought. HealthGrades states that patients treated at a hospital receiving 5-stars in a particular procedure or condition have a lower risk of experiencing complications during a hospital stay than if they were treated at a hospital receiving a 1-star in that procedure or condition. There also is a lower risk of dying during a hospital stay in a 5-star hospital than in a 1-star hospital. They also cite the national ratings average for procedures and conditions for comparison.
You should visit the website and find your healthcare facility. It is imperative that we, as consumers, must take charge of our own health, and make informed choices on where and from whom we purchase our care.
