RESEARCH YOUR HOSPITAL

As good, compliant patients, we are accustomed to simply agreeing with the hospital recommended by our doctor without thinking. You need to THINK about it! In fact, you need to research every hospital prior to admission, unless you are in an emergency situation. HealthGrades, an organization that conducts research on hospitals and doctors and posts their results online, just released the following statement -

"Patients treated at top-performing hospitals were, on average, 43 percent less likely to experience a medical error compared to the poorest performing hospitals, according to HealthGrades' fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study. The study, released this month, analyzed 41 million Medicare patient records from nearly all of the nation’s 5,000 non-federal hospitals.

HealthGrades researchers found that patient safety incidents cost the federal Medicare program $8.8 billion and resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths during 2004 through 2006.With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services scheduled to stop reimbursing hospitals for the treatment of eight major preventable errors, including objects left in the body after surgery and certain post-surgical infections, starting October 1, the financial implications for hospitals are substantial."

Th full report on this study is available as a PDF download free from http://www.healthgrades.com/