Medicare patients treated at top-rated hospitals have a 28% lower in-hospital, risk-adjusted mortality rate than patients admitted to all other hospitals, according to an annual study released by HealthGrades. Patients who undergo surgery at high-performing hospitals also have an average 5% lower risk of complications during their stay. The study found that 158,264 lives may have been saved and 12,410 major complications avoided during the three years studied if the quality of care at all hospitals had matched the level of those in the top 5%. Hospitals with risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates that score in the top 5% receive HealthGrades’ designation as “Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence.”
For the 26 medical procedures and diagnoses on which hospitals’ performance is assessed, HealthGrades’ distinguished hospitals improved at a greater rate than other hospitals, lowering mortality rates by an average 11.74% from 2003 to 2005 and reducing postsurgical complication rates by 3.39%--more than twice as much improvement as all other hospitals.
