The annual HealthGrades study rates every nonfederal hospital with a 1-, 3- or 5-star rating indicating poor, average or excellent outcomes in each of 28 medical categories. Taken together, the individual hospital ratings produce the following findings:

• The nation's in-hospital risk-adjusted mortality rate improved, on average, 7.89 percent from 2003 to 2005. But the degree of improvement varied widely by procedure and diagnosis studied.

• Five-star rated hospitals had significantly lower risk-adjusted mortality rates across all three years studied and improved, over the years 2003 to 2005, 19 percent more than the U.S. hospital average and 57 percent more than 1-star rated hospitals.

• A typical patient would have, on average, a 69 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital, and a 49 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.

• If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-star rated hospital across 18 of the procedures and diagnoses studied, 302,403 Medicare lives could have potentially been saved from 2003 through 2005. Fifty percent of the potentially preventable deaths were associated with just four diagnoses: Heart Failure, Community Acquired Pneumonia, Sepsis and Respiratory Failure.

Table: Improvement and Relative Risk Reduction Associated with U.S. Medicare Hospitalizations by Procedure and Diagnoses: 2003-2005

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Contact: Scott Shapiro
sshapiro@healthgrades.com
720-963-6584
HealthGrades
16-Oct-2006