Hospital selection can dramatically affect patient outcomes says a new Healthgrades report examining hospital quality outcomes.
"American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Report to the Nation," released today, shows that individuals are far more likely to die or suffer complications at hospitals receiving the lowest Healthgrades rating.
For the 2014 report, Healthgrades analyzed three years of Medicare outcomes data for approximately 40 million patient records for nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to each of more than 31 common conditions and procedures.
[See also: Policy recommendations on quality measurement: my reactions.]
The results show that a patient's chance of suffering a complication – or even death – is substantially greater at hospitals receiving Healthgrades one-star rating when compared to hospitals receiving five-stars. The variation in outcomes differs widely even between hospitals within the same community. For example, Healthgrades evaluated 33 hospitals in Atlanta and found that stroke mortality rates were 17 times higher in hospitals receiving one star versus hospitals receiving five stars.
The report also found that there was a significantly lower risk of dying at a hospital receiving the highest rating for six mortality-based procedures and conditions including:
- COPD: 81 percent lower risk of dying
- colorectal surgeries: 70.4 percent
- pneumonia: 65.9 percent
- stroke: 54.6 percent
- heart attack: 48.1 percent
- sepsis: 41.9 percent
The report also shows that there was a significantly lower risk of having a complication at a hospital receiving a five-star rating versus those hospitals receiving a one-star rating in four primary complication-based procedures and conditions:
- hip replacement: 69.1 percent lower risk of having a complication
- carotid surgery: 66.9 percent
- total knee replacement: 63.4
- gallbladder removal surgery: 52.5 percent
Healthgrades noted in the report that better quality can result in lower overall costs. There is a definitive link between higher rates of complications and death and associated increased direct costs for hospitals, according to Healthgrades. The report shows that direct costs of caring for a patient who experiences a complication are, on average, nearly two times the cost of caring for those patients who did not experience a complication.
The Healthgrades report suggests that hospitals can improve outcomes and lower direct costs by using the report’s findings to focus efforts on improving performance and that patients can influence their healthcare outcomes by doing their homework to ensure they are making informed choices.