Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Colorado, and Pennsylvania Rank Among the Best States for Hospital Care Quality, Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality Study

Written by U.S. Insurance News
Monday, 13 October 2003
The quality of care at the nation's hospitals varies substantially from state to state, according to the sixth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, released on September 22, 2003. The study rates each of the nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals in 26 procedures and diagnoses, and can assist individuals in finding high-quality hospitals in their local areas. The quality of care at the nation's hospitals varies substantially from state to state, according to the sixth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, released on September 22, 2003. The study rates each of the nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals in 26 procedures and diagnoses, and can assist individuals in finding high-quality hospitals in their local areas. The annual study was undertaken by Health Grades, Inc., an independent healthcare quality company, providing ratings, information and advisory services to healthcare providers, employers, health plans and insurance companies. The HealthGrades study 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 the lower ranking states, patients usually 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 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, five procedures and diagnoses were chosen to represent various aspects of quality at the state level: Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery (CABG), Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI), Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), and Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP). HEALTHGRADES SIXTH ANNUAL HOSPITAL RATINGS RELEASE PAGE 4 Rank State -------------------- 1 ND -------------------- 2 FL -------------------- 3 OH -------------------- 4 MI -------------------- 5 MD -------------------- 6 CO -------------------- 7 PA -------------------- 8 CT -------------------- 9 UT -------------------- 10 SD -------------------- 11 VA -------------------- 12 MN -------------------- 13 AZ -------------------- 14 MT -------------------- 15 NJ -------------------- 16 ME -------------------- 17 IL -------------------- 18 RI -------------------- 19 WA -------------------- 20 IN -------------------- 21 OR -------------------- 22 DC -------------------- 23 NH -------------------- 24 ID -------------------- 25 CA -------------------- 26 MA -------------------- 27 MO -------------------- 28 LA -------------------- 29 NC -------------------- 30 TX -------------------- 31 NM -------------------- 32 NE -------------------- 33 NY -------------------- 34 KY -------------------- 35 DE -------------------- 36 NV -------------------- 37 GA -------------------- 38 WI -------------------- 39 AK -------------------- 40 IA -------------------- 41 WV -------------------- 42 SC -------------------- 43 WY -------------------- 44 HI -------------------- 45 OK -------------------- 46 VT -------------------- 47 KS -------------------- 48 TN -------------------- 49 AR -------------------- 50 AL -------------------- 51 MS -------------------- The greatest difference in outcomes at the state level was found with PCIs, which includes angioplasty, stent, and atherectomy. More than 500,000 PCIs are performed each year, according to the American Heart Association. For these procedures, New York was the best performing state and Alaska was the worst. Along with Alaska, states such as Texas and Tennessee had an above-average level of PCI mortality, which resulted in hundreds of unnecessary deaths between 2000 and 2002. Hospitals in states such as New York, New Jersey and Florida had lower-than-expected mortality rates, which resulted in hundreds of lives being saved in those states during the same period. Complete survey data can be found at www.HealthGrades.com. HealthGrades' ratings were compiled using advanced statistical techniques and raw data taken from Medicare files licensed from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). the company risk-adjusted the hospital data, taking into account patient characteristics such as age, gender and pre-existing medical conditions of patients treated at different hospitals, in order to make accurate and fair comparisons. The full methodology is also available at www.healthgrades.com. In addition to providing information and advisory services to healthcare providers and insurance companies, HealthGrades provides consumers access to information about health care providers and practitioners through its web site.

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