People can now compare nationwide hospitals’ efficiency in treating their patients by analyzing death rates for some of the most life-threatening medical conditions. The data were released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and include deaths rates from heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.

The report is detailed on Medicare’s Web site www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov a site launched in 2005 to keep patients as well as hospitals informed about quality care.

The new data add to the already existing ones about quality of hospital care received by children, patient satisfaction, and patient experience.

“CMS” goal for updating and enhancing the Hospital Compare Web site is to provide usable and accurate information about hospital performance to providers and communities that will encourage hospitals to excel in the quality of care they provide,” Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement Wednesday.

The report is based on Medicare patients who died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital, for the 12 months ended June 2007. How much these information will help patients is really questioned by some health care providers.

“How do you shop for care when you're having a heart attack?” asked Dr. Daniel Higgins, a vascular surgeon and president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society. He also expressed concern that some hospitals will try to ameliorate their death rates by treating especially high-risk patients.

Overall, the hospitals’ death rates were between 8.8 percent (Provena St. Joseph, Joliet) and 13.9 percent (Rush Oak Park). These rates can be compared with the national mortality rate for heart attack (16.1 percent), heart failure (11.1 percent), and pneumonia (11.4 percent).