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HealthGrades quality study finds 70% lower death rate at top hospitals

Quality Improvement Monitor, October 17, 2008

Patients have a 70% lower chance of dying at top-rated hospitals compared with the lowest-rated facilities across 17 procedures and conditions, according to the 11th annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study.

Although overall death rates declined from 2005-2007, the study found that top hospitals were able to reduce their date rates at a much faster rates than their poorly performing counterparts, according to a HealthGrades release. The study also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of five-star rated hospitals, 237,420 Medicare deaths potentially could have been prevented over the three-year period. More than half of those deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure, and respiratory failure.

The study looked at more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2005-2007 from approximately 5,000 hospitals.

Click here to access the full study.

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