The HealthGrades study, which ranked the states in hospital quality, found that better-performing hospitals were concentrated in northern and less populous states, while worse-performing hospitals were concentrated in southern states. Many of the states that exhibited the highest hospital quality, such as Florida, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, ranked among the best consistently across the procedures and diagnoses studied. Similarly, many of the worst states, such as Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi, were ranked among the worst consistently across all procedures and diagnoses studied. While there are five-star hospitals in these states, patients, on average, get better care in the higher-ranking states.
"On average, you have a 54.9% increased chance of dying if you have an angioplasty or other percutaneous coronary intervention in Texas rather than New York," said Samantha Collier, MD, HealthGrades' vice president of medical affairs. "In Mississippi, your chance of dying from a heart attack is 49.4% higher, on average, than if you were treated in Colorado. The quality chasm at American hospitals is real, and it is very alarming and concerning despite evidence of process improvements."
Ranking of States by 5 Key Quality Outcome Measurements
To compile the state rankings, 5 procedures and diagnoses of the 26 HealthGrades rates at hospitals nationwide were chosen to represent various aspects of quality
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Contact: Scott Shapiro
sshapiro@bratskeir.com
212-679-2233 x2910
HealthGrades
22-Sep-2003