eport Cards Dealt Out to Nation’s Hospitals

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June 21, 2007 — The government recently evaluated hospitals around the country on their performance in the treatment of patients suffering from heart attacks or heart failure.
Almost all 4,500 hospitals performed at the national average when it came to their patient mortality rates.
However, for heart failure, 38 hospitals were listed as performing better than the national rate for heart failure, and 35 were listed as performing worse. For heart attacks, 17 performed better; 7 worse. The ratings are based on hospital claims data filed from July 2005 to June 2006.
Medicare officials said hospitals have already been notified of their ratings, and were given much more detailed information than what is being made available to the public. Quality improvement officials will work with the hospitals performing worse than the national average.