Georgia Hospitals Perform Poorly

A new website, The Hospital Compare Web, run by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shows 80 U.S. hospitals listed as top performers in the mortality rates for patients admitted with heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. No Georgia hospitals were among the best performers. Nine Georgia hospitals rated worse than national norms on death rates for pneumonia or heart failure. The number of poorly performing hospitals in Georgia was higher than any state other than California.
Mortality rates for hospitals across the nation were disclosed by the federal agency, which is expanding its report cards on the quality of health care. This is the first time consumers are able to compare hospital death rates for patients admitted for three conditions: pneumonia, heart failure and heart attack.
Nationwide, 103 hospitals, including the nine Georgia hospitals, were rated worse than the national average for one or more conditions. Eight of the nine in Georgia were poor performers in pneumonia.
Medicare’s Hospital Compare website provides patient-satisfaction rates for hospitals. The site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov) also gives information about whether hospitals follow appropriate procedures for treating medical conditions, such as giving a beta blocker to a heart-attack patient.
On the expanded Medicare site, the mortality data represent the percent of patients who die within 30 days of being admitted to a hospital for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. All patients studied were enrolled in original Medicare, the government insurance program for people 65 and older and the disabled, and received hospital care from July 2006 to June 2007.
The rates are “risk adjusted” so that a hospital will not have a higher rate solely because it admits patients with more severe illnesses. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also provided an estimate range, similar to a survey’s margin of error.
The nine hospitals in Georgia are : St Francis in Columbus; Phoebe Putnam Memorial in Albany; University Hospital in Augusta; Fairview Park in Dublin; Rockdale Medical Center in Conyers; Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton; Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon; and, West Georgia Medical center in LaGrange.