Another report, this time coming from HealthGrades, comes to the rescue of people looking for the best hospitals where they can treat their medical problems.

 

According to the report, it appears that top-rated US hospitals have a 27 percent lower death rate than other hospitals.

 

The report was based on the records of about 41 million Medicare patients treated at the nation’s almost 5,000 non-federal hospitals in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The hospitals were ranked considering the success or failure of 26 common diagnosis and procedures including heart failure, heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, angioplasty, gastrointestinal surgeries and sepsis.

 

The report also found that top-rated hospitals reduced in-hospital complication rates by more than 3.9 percent, compared to about 2.5 percent for all other hospitals.

 

According to HealthGrades, more than 150,000 lives may have been saved and about 12,000 major complications may have been avoided from 2005 through 2007 if all hospitals had the same quality of care met in the top-rated hospitals.

 

“This study echoes others that have found distinct quality gaps between top-performing hospitals and others,” Dr. Rick May, HealthGrades senior physician consultant and an author of the study, said.

 

Last week, the Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development, or OSHPD, 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.

 

According to the findings, in 2007, 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.