U.S. posts hospital death rates for heart ailments

The U.S. government posted mortality data on Thursday for the nation's thousands of hospitals for heart attacks and heart failure, in an effort to shed light on which hospitals provide the best care.

Health care in the United States is notorious for its lack of transparency -- for both the price of goods and services, as well as the quality of care provided by doctors and hospitals.

The new mortality data updates a year-old project by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contrasting prices and experience at the nation's 4,500 acute-care hospitals. The government's Web site compares 31 elective hospital procedures such as heart valve operations, gallbladder removal and hernia operations.

"We don't yet have the Formula One version. We have the go cart version," Secretary Mike Leavitt said during a briefing on the government's efforts to make hospitals -- which get a large portion of their revenue from government health programs -- more accountable.

The new measures track 30-day mortality following a heart attack and heart failure and make risk adjustments for a patient's health, age and other factors.

Hospitals are rated in-line with the national average, above average, or below average for the two heart conditions. Just seven hospitals were rated worse-than-average for death rates following a heart attack, while 17 were rated better-than- average.

In heart failure, 38 hospitals scored a top rating, while 35 scored a worse-than-average for that measure.

The small numbers reflect a conservative approach taken by the consortium, which developed the measures, and included researchers from Harvard and Yale Universities.

During the 1980s, the government tried releasing hospital quality data, but the industry revolted and they were eventually scrapped.
Source :http://www.reuters.com