Health

Website Helps Patients Compare Hospitals

Allows users to compare death rates and patient experience

(CBS4) For most people, going to the hospital is a last resort to save a life. But with the increase in rates of staph-resistant bugs and complaints of poor care, how do you know which hospital will best help you get healthy again?

The answer may be the federal government's Hospital Compare web site. The page brings together information on process of care, patient satisfaction, and patient experience to help patients make better choices.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, two divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services, run Hospital Compare.

Pneumonia death rates are the latest addition to the site. Death rates from heart attack and heart failure can also be compared between hospitals and against the national mortality rate.

The new data about death rates are reportedly "risk adjusted." This means the ratings take into account the health of the patients in the past.

"With these new enhancements, consumers and health care providers will be able to look at individual hospital mortality scores. We hope that this new information will cement the website's role as a key driver in improvi9ng the quality and reliability of care in the nation's hospitals," Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicad Services, told CNN.

The data is primarily for hospitals to determine how to improve the care they provide. But, the hope is that patients and hospital boards will use the data to hold hospitals accountable.

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