If you are going into the hospital wouldn’t you like to know what your chances are of coming out?
Finding out your odds of surviving a hospital stay is now as easy as the click of a mouse.
Medicare’s Hospital Compare website now allows anyone to compare mortality rates and quality of care at any participating hospital.
The website was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Hospital Quality Alliance. The site allows users to access rates for mortality, and for process-of-care measures that show if hospitals provide recommended treatments for critical care patients.
Hospitals voluntarily submit the data from their records, both on patients with Medicare and those without.
So how do the hospitals on the First Coast measure up?
The 30 day Risk Adjusted Death Rates for Baptist Medical Center Beaches, Flagler Hospital and Mayo Clinic are all listed as no different than the U.S. National Rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.
The rates are reported after a 30 day period because that is the period when deaths are most likely to be related to the care a patient received upon entering a hospital. The rates include patients that die in the hospital and those who die after discharge — or transfer to another hospital.
The national 30 day mortality rate for deaths due to heart attack is 16.1 percent. Mortality rates at Flagler and Mayo are slightly above the national rate at 16.8 percent and 16.2 percent respectively. Patients at Baptist Beaches have a slightly higher chance of surviving 30 days after a heart attack, with a 15.7 percent mortality rate.
The national 30 day death rate for heart failure is 11.1% and all three of the area hospitals performed better than the national average. Baptist Beaches reported a 10.2 percent 30 day mortality rate for patients with heart failure, Flagler reported 8.6 percent and Mayo reported 8.1 percent.
When it comes to pneumonia, the national rate is 11.4 percent. Flagler reported 10.4 percent and Mayo reported 10.3 percent. Baptist Beaches reported 8.5 percent.
Baptist Medical Center South was not listed in the survey.
Susan Barrow, public relations coordinator for Baptist Medical Center said that is because the main branch of Baptist Medical Center and Baptist Medical Center South operate under the same license, and the survey results are combined for Hospital Compare purposes. The mortality rates for heart attack at Baptist are reported at 16.8 percent, for heart failure 10.5 percent and for pneumonia 9.6 percent.
In addition to mortality rates, Hospital Compare allows anyone to compare process-of-care measures for participating hospitals — surgical care, heart attack, pneumonia, heart failure and children’s asthma. Statistics show that patients who receive high-quality medical care immediately survive longer and with fewer complications than those who don’t.
The only area hospital reporting statistics for children’s asthma is Baptist Medical Center. Process-of-care measures for this category are broken down into two categories. First is the percentage of children who receive reliever medicine while hospitalized for asthma. Baptist reported 100 percent of its patients did. Second is the percentage of children who received specific oral and IV medicines that reduce inflammation and control symptoms while hospitalized for asthma. The average for all hospitals is 99 percent. Baptist reported 98 percent.
All four area hospitals reported 80 percent or higher in most surveyed categories, but there were exceptions.
Baptist Medical Center Beaches reported only 76 percent of heart failure patients were given discharge instructions. In addition, only 77 percent of heart failure patients were given ACE inhibitors or similar drugs.
Flagler Hospital reported only 44 percent of heart attack patients were given PCI within 90 minutes of arrival and only 54 percent of heart failure patients were given discharge instructions. Additionally Flagler reported 78 percent of pneumonia patients were assessed and given an Influenza vaccination and 79 percent were assessed and given a Pneumococcal vaccination.
Mayo Clinic reported only 68 percent of surgery patients received treatment to prevent blood clots within 24 hours before or after selected surgeries.
Baptist Medical Center, which includes Baptist South, reported only 59 percent of heart attack patients were given PCI within 90 minutes of arrival and 76 percent of surgery patients received treatment to prevent blood clots within 24 hours before or after selected surgeries.
Hospital Compare also offers results of a survey of patients’ hospital experiences, using data collected from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey.
For more information or to compare hospitals, visit www.hospitalcompare. hhs.gov, because while nothing is certain in life but death and taxes, with the right information you may be able to avoid them both for just a little longer.
