Hospital Quality Ratings

The hospital you choose can literally make the difference between life and death. This is especially true if you need high risk surgery or medical treatment like cancer care. Many studies show that hospitals that do a higher volume of high risk surgery (cardiac, brain, bariatric and others) have better outcomes. This is not only because the surgeon is more proficient, but the people caring for you after surgery are also better trained and proficient in recognizing and dealing with complications a patient might have. If you care to read more about this, here's more information on choosing a hospital from The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ)

 

Are You Having Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery in New Hampshire?

Learn About Mortality and Complication Rates Here.

The sites below provide a variety of information. No one site is perfect. NH doesn't have a state patient safety commission, so with the exception of our state infection report, we don’t yet have access to transparent data on hospital performance like some states provide.  We have to depend on what’s available from national hospital rating sites like the ones we’ve listed here.   The important thing is to do your research, compare data from different sites, and compare your hospital with others in NH and those in neighboring states that are known to have good reputations. 

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NEW!  THE COMMONWEALTH FUND posts hospital quality data taken from The Agency For Healthcare

Research and Quality.  Compare hospitals in every state on selected infection, mortality, and complication 

rates like post-operative sepsis, failure-to-rescue, bedsores, and others. Also allows you to compare your

hospital's rates with the 'top performing' hospitals around the country.  Choose "AHRQ PSI's" from the drop-down menu to view complication rates.

NEW!  KIDNEY DIALYSIS CENTER RATINGS for every state published by a ProPublica investigative

report.  Rating information taken directly from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid data (CMS).

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality)

HEALTHGRADES

All information used for Healthgrades ratings is taken directly from Medicare records. Information on a variety of outcome measures for surgery and medical conditions such as infections, mortality, and patient safety allow you to compare your local hospital with others in or out-of-state. When you get to your hospital name, be sure to click on the 'Patient Safety' tab on the page; this reveals important information for you to know.

THE LEAPFROG GROUP

Leapfrog signs on large employers and insurance purchasing groups interested in having their employees get the best quality care and save money on insurance premiums.  They send out requests to hospitals in their state to participate in the Leapfrog patient safety survey. If the hospital doesn’t take the survey, then employees may be directed away from using those hospitals. Research is showing that hospitals that participate in Leapfrog have better outcomes (and reduced costs). Consumers can go to this website and for free, look at hospital ratings for outcomes like surgical complications, mortality, some infection rates, ICU staffing, & important patient safety measures. If you don’t see your local hospital listed or it says they "declined to respond", you might want to call the hospital quality improvement department and ask if they would be willing to participate.

MEDICARE DATA ON USA TODAY USER-FRIENDLY SITE

USA Today took the August, 2009 Medicare mortality data and put it into a user-friendly format on their website. You can look up hospital mortality data & readmission rates for pneumonia, heart failure and heart attack for all U.S. hospitals. They also have formats for viewing the list of the “top 100” and the “worst 100” hospitals for mortality and readmissions.

MEDICARE WEBSITE:  HOSPITAL COMPARE

Provides mortality rates and readmission rates for pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks. Not very easy to navigate, but USA Today has taken the data from Medicare’s site and turned it into a user-friendly format for healthcare consumers (see below)

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT HOSPITAL RATINGS

Have to have gastrointestinal or bladder surgery?  This is a good place to start if you're looking for how hospitals compare in specialty areas. Endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the ratings for most specialty areas are arrived at using hard data such as death rates, procedure volume, patient safety and nurse staffing.   User-friendly bar graphs allow you to compare survival at one hospital to another by simply entering the medical specialty, the state and/or hospital you want to look up.  Also publishes a list of the top performing hospitals in the country.  This year, only 152 of the 4,852 hospitals evaluated performed well enough to rank in any specialty.  And of the 152, just 14 qualified for a spot in the Honor Roll by ranking at or near the top in six or more specialties.  Read about their methods for ranking hospitals here.

THE NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE STUDY GROUP (NNECDSG)

Learn about Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) complication and mortality rates in New Hampshire, Maine, & Vermont by hospital name (Clicking on 'registries' on the menu bar will take you to the surgery report).

The information is shared voluntarily by hospitals but is periodically validated. To go directly to the report, click here.

NH HOSPITAL INFECTION REPORT

Three types of infections are required to be reported by the HB 1741, which passesd in 2006: surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonias, and bloodstream infections.  The first public report was released on August 17, 2010 but does not include ventilator-associated pneumonia or several types of surgical site infections.

NH HOSPITAL SCORECARD

This hospital scorecard, formulated by The NH Purchasers Group, uses ‘blue ribbons’ to tell how hospitals are doing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide outcome data or ratings and most all hospitals look the same; which might not be helpful if you’re facing high risk surgery or treatment and need to compare hospital outcomes or patient safety information.

The good news is that the NH Purchasers Group has signed onto The Leapfrog Patient Safety Group and will be sending out letters to all New Hampshire hospitals in March, 2010 requesting that they participate in taking Leapfrog Patient Safety Survey. If hospitals agree to take the survey, then consumers will be able to view NH hospital ratings on the Leapfrog website starting in mid-July, 2010.  See more about the Leapfrog Group below.

CONSUMER CHECKBOOK

Like Healthgrades, information is taken from Medicare records. They charge a fee for one year access to all hospital ratings (they also provide ratings of physicians, healthcare plans, and other consumer services). This organization calculates risk-adjusted death rates, adverse-outcome rates, and patient safety ratings like ICU staffing. They also have other useful information like the top hospitals in the U.S. for various diseases and conditions. Very comprehensive consumer website.