The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made additions to its Hospital Compare Web site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/) including the addition of a mortality measure for pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure among Medicare patients.
Area residents can rest easy knowing Scott & White Memorial Hospital, King’s Daughters Hospital, Metroplex Hospital in Killeen and Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco all had percentages that were in line with the national average, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services numbers.
In comparing the 30-day mortality rate of Medicare heart attack patients Scott & White had a 15.3 percent rate of mortality among 119 patients, King’s Daughters had a mortality rate of 16.1 percent among 11 patients, Metroplex had a mortality rate of 15.1 percent among 34 patients and Hillcrest had a mortality rate of 16.5 percent among 109 patients. The national average was 16.1 percent.
There is also a list of hospitals with better than average rates and a list of hospitals whose rates are worse than the national average.
Memorial Hermann Healthcare in Houston had a lower mortality rate in its heart failure patients - 7.1 among 608 patients. The national average rate is 11.1 percent. McAllen Medical Center Heart Hospital had a 7.7 percent rate among 265 heart failure patients.
Methodist Hospital in Houston had a rate of 7.9 percent among its 266 pneumonia patients. The national average is 11.4 percent.
Baylor Medical Center in Waxahachie and University Medical Center in Lubbock were two hospitals in Texas that posted higher numbers than the national average in the mortality rate for pneumonia patients.
Gail Van Zyl, executive director of quality, safety and regulatory service at Scott & White, said Scott & White uses the numbers to track how the Temple and Round Rock medical centers are doing in achieving goal numbers.
While the most recent figures deal with the mortality rate of heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients, Hospital Compare also rates hospitals in the care of six medical conditions and more than 20 surgical procedures.
“In some areas we’re doing very, very well and in some areas we’re very close to top hospitals,” Ms. Van Zyl said. “We don’t want to achieve the 90 percent goals that are set for everybody. We want to be at 100 percent.”
“Reporting quality data on care provided hospital patients is key to our continuing effort to provide better, value-based health care for all Americans,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a press release. “Expanding the scope of measures is making Hospital Care a more valuable tool for all health care consumers.”
The formula used to rate the hospitals in the latest addition to Hospital Compares focuses on all deaths of heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia patients that occur within 30 days of a patient’s admission to a hospital. The 30-day benchmark was selected so it would include analysis patterns of death that might have escaped hospital’s notice because the patients didn’t die until several days after they were discharged.
USA Today used the information to create a database at www.usatoday.com/news/health/hospitals-graphic.htm that allows the reader to compare hospital performance of area hospitals and hospitals across the state and nation.
