MONDAY, Jan. 29, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- The top 5 percent of hospitals in the United States have a 28 percent lower death rate than other hospitals in the nation, a new study finds.
The analysis, released Jan. 29 by HealthGrades, an independent health care ratings company, also found that patients who have surgery at the top-rated hospitals are about five percent less likely to suffer complications than patients at other hospitals.
The fifth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study analyzed death and mortality rates for 26 procedures and diagnoses, including bypass surgery, angioplasty, stroke, and heart attack, at all 5,122 of the nation's nonfederal hospitals. The analysis included nearly 39 million hospitalizations in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Over those three years, the top hospitals reduced their death rates by an average of 11.7 percent and reduced post-surgical complication rates by about 3.4 percent.
If all U.S. hospitals had the same quality of care as the top hospitals, 158,264 lives might have been saved and 12,409 major complications avoided, the study authors said.
There's a growing, but preventable, gap in the quality of care provided by high quality hospitals and other hospitals in the United States, according to HealthGrades.
To qualify for the HealthGrades list, hospitals were required to meet minimum thresholds in terms of patient volumes, quality ratings and the range of services provided. HealthGrades risk-adjusted the data, to compare on equal footing hospitals that treated sicker patients.
Hospitals with risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates that scored in the top 5 percent or better nationally -- which demonstrates superior overall clinical performance -- were then recognized as Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence.
Individual hospitals can be searched for on the company's Web site at www.HealthGrades.com.
More information
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services offers information about hospital quality.
