In an attempt to help improve health care and people looking for better places to treat their medical problems, the Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development, or OSHPD, on Thursday, made available a database online that compares inpatient mortality rate for five procedures and three conditions including stroke, hip fractures and brain surgery at 384 hospitals in California.

 

‘Hospital Inpatient Mortality Indicators for California 2006 and 2006” can be accessed at www.oshpd.ca.gov. The database will allow “California’s hospitals to examine their practices and improve their quality for care and help inform consumers and patients about their healthcare choices,” according to David Carlisle, director of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

 

The five procedures the study authors looked at involved esophageal resection, craniotomy, pancreatic resection, carotid andartetectomy, and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

 

According to the findings, Downey Regional Medical Center received a bad review for its craniotomies to remove either brain tumors or blood clots. On the other hand, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center did a better job than did hospitals across the nation for their treatment of acute strokes.

 

Acute strokes had a mortality rate of 10.4 percent nationwide in 49,916 cases. Long Beach and Kaiser registered rates of only 7.1 percent in 485 and 279 cases respectively.

 

Overall, in 2007, 25 hospitals registered death rates that were significantly better than the state average on at least one category, while 94 were significantly worse in at least one category. For 2006, data showed that 33 hospitals had death rates that were significantly better on at least one indicator, while 98 hospitals rated significantly worse on at least one indicator.

 

The Officer of Statewide health Planning & Development plans to release death rates for 2008 as of October.