Health News

Hospital Care Quality Web Site Revised

June 21, 2007 -- The U.S. government today revised its web site on hospital care quality for certain medical conditions.

The web site, hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, now provides information on 30-day death rates for Medicare patients admitted to hospitals for heart attack or heart failure.

The web site also continues to include information on the following 21 measures of hospital care quality:

• 8 measures related to heart attack care
• 4 measures related to heart failure care
• 7 measures related to pneumonia care
• 2 measures related to surgical infection prevention

People can search the web site's information by hospital name, city, ZIP code, state, or county.

The web site comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and the Hospital Quality Alliance, a public-private collaboration established to promote reporting on quality of hospital care.

Hospital Checklist

The web site provides a hospital checklist to help people prepare for a trip to the hospital.

The checklist isn't about what to pack in your bag when you head to the hospital. Instead, it focuses on questions to ask doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies before a hospital visit.

The web site suggests asking doctors these questions:

• Which hospital has the best care and results for my condition?
• How well were your other patients treated at that hospital?
• Why do you recommend this hospital for my care?

Patients are also advised to consider hospitals' accreditation, attention to quality of care, cleanliness, convenience, and hospital room privacy.

In addition, the web site encourages patients to check whether their health plan requires them to go to a certain hospital for nonemergency care or to pay different amounts at different hospitals.