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August 26 2008

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Hospital Deaths Go Public

Thousands of individual U.S. hospitals will have their ultimate test of competence revealed on the Web -- whether their patients live or die. The Hospital Compare page, maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has begun displaying actual hospital death rates for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia patients.

Previously, only relative performance had been shown; the page formerly showed only whether mortality at a particular hospital was about the same as the national average, better than average, or worse than average.

The rates are adjusted to take risk factors such as age, heart problems, and existing conditions into account.


Sources:

  U.S. News & World Report August 21, 2008




 
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Comment on This Article Community Comments (5)
 
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
Okay, I will put in my two cents worth. I am a nurse, I educate nurses, and I have worked in multiple healthcare situations in Canada.

Nurses are responsible for their own health. They need not eat out of 'vending machines' but can make sound food choices too.

But I will tell you this much, the stress level and the amount of increasing professional responsibility is devastating on their bodies and minds, and I can almost bet if you tested cortisol levels they would be sky high. Any nurse who works 3-12 hours shifts or more a week is likely NOT sleeping properly, which we know is a recipe for health disaster.

My nurses are expected to find 2-3 hours a day just charting on their patient's, and if you work a 12 hours shift.....try 3- 4 hours.
That 4 day holiday that you mentioned Squarepusher....guess what nurses do on their days off??....recover.  They try to anyway.  But then there are children and a household to take care for, groceries to buy, laundry to do, aging parents to care for, and financial things to attend to....and then they try to get in an hour a day at the gym or walk.....

The average age of a nurse in North America is 47 years old. That means that peri menopause is messing with hormone levels too....

Nurses have one of the hardest jobs in the country.  I stand by that from personal experience.  They need support, not criticism.

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Miss Bliss
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Posted On Aug 25, 2008
Do you think that a contributor is the fact that nurses are expected to walk on water, remain lucid, and carry out important tasks when they work 12-hour shifts, sleep little and eat out of vending machines?
I would not become a nurse if it payed $500K per year.

OK.  Maybe I would. 
No I wouldn't   :)

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Posted On Aug 26, 2008
This is very disturbing. I was just reading an article a day or so ago in our local newspaper, that a hospital in our area, that I thought had their stuff together, was one of the top hospitals with the most deaths after surgery. Very Scary since this hospital was the hospital of choice before the hospital in my own town, which ironically was one of the lowest hospitals in deaths.

I agree with samurai, nurses are overworked and they have terrible diets. Combine this with staffing cutbacks and you have a recipe for disaster.

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Posted On Aug 26, 2008
I couldn't find the rates of infection and deaths.  I traipsed through several screens and never found it.  Any ideas?

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Posted On Aug 26, 2008
I do not think the nurses diets is mandated by their professions, or they are disallowed from bringing preprepared meals.

Nurses in my area will typically work a 3 x 12 hour shift, thats a 4 day vacation each week, not back if you ask me.  Also, look at the doctors who often work well beyond 12 hours shifts.


Regarding the original subject, I think this is interesting, although I suspect regions of people who are less healthy will have higher death risks, regardless of quality of hospital care.

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