Top hospitals have 27 percent lower mortality, annual HealthGrades s...( GOLDEN Colo. (January 31 2008) Pati...),Health

GOLDEN, Colo. (January 31, 2008) Patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide are nearly one-third less likely to die, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Patients who undergo surgery at these high-performing hospitals also have an average five percent lower risk of complications during their stay, researchers found.

The annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study, now in its sixth year, identifies hospitals in the top five percent nationally in terms of mortality and complication rates for 27 procedures and diagnoses, from bypass surgery to total knee replacement. Hospitals achieving this level of care are designated Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades and are identified on the organization's consumer Web site, HealthGrades.com.

To name hospitals in the top five percent for clinical excellence, the HealthGrades study analyzed nearly 41 million hospitalizations during the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 at all 4,971 of the nations nonfederal hospitals.

Disparities in the hospitals care patients receive, based simply on where they choose to seek treatment, highlight a troubling phenomenon in the U.S. healthcare system: a persistent and preventable gap between high-quality hospitals and the rest of the field.

The 2008 study found that 171,424 lives may have been saved and 9,671 major complications avoided during the three years studied, had the quality of care at all hospitals matched the level of those in the top five percent.

In comparing hospitals in the top five percent, designated as Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, with all other hospitals, the HealthGrades study found:

• On average, a 27 percent lower risk of inhospital risk-adjusted mortality was experienced by Medicare patients at Distinguished Hospital
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