Accreditation

Death rate 27% lower in America’s top rated hospitals

Accreditation Connection, January 30, 2009

According to a recent survey conducted by HealthGrades, an independent healthcare ratings organization, the top-rated hospitals in the United States have a 27% lower death rate than lesser-ranked hospitals, reports The Washington Post.

The survey examined data concerning 41 million medicare patients that had been treated at 5,000 non-federal hospitals nationwide from 2005-2007. The main focus was looking at 26 universal diagnoses that included heart failure, heart attack, stroke, and pneumonia.

During these years, the study found that hospitals ranked within the top five percent had lowered their in-hospital risk-adjusted death rates by 18%, as opposed to 13% of other hospitals. Also, top hospitals saw a reduction in their in-hospital complication rate by 3.9%.

HealthGrades Seventh Annual Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study also determined that if all hospitals had matched the death rate reductions of the top-rated hospitals, potentially 152,666 lives could have been saved and 11,722 major complications could have been avoided within the study's three years.

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