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Study: High-quality care could save 2,200 lives

Quality Improvement Monitor, July 20, 2007

If the lowest-ranked hospitals on quality had the same death rates as top-ranked ones, 2,200 fewer older Americans would die each year from heart attacks, congestive heart failure, or pneumonia, according to a new study reported in HealthDay.

The findings may prompt Americans to probe the hospitals they select to receive their care in, HealthDay reported.

"Patients still rely on word of mouth, they rely on general reputation," Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard School, told HealthDay.

"But this study says that there is quality information out there that is really helpful in identifying hospitals where you are going to have better outcomes. I hope consumers will become much more active about picking good providers," said Jha, the lead researcher.

Researchers used data from the Hospital Quality Alliance and looked at performance scores from 3,720 U.S. hospitals. They found that compared with hospitals in the lowest quality score, hospitals with top quality scores had almost a 1% lower death rate for patients who had a heart attack, 0.4% fewer deaths among patients with heart failure, and 0.8% fewer deaths for patients with pneumonia, HealthDay said.

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