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[mrsmaup]

A friend sent me this.


Hospital Care: Does Your State Rate?


All states -- even ones at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to hospital care -- have good hospitals and bad hospitals. What do you look for in a good hospital?

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Feature Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Wednesday, September 24, 2003


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Suffering a heart attack in a state such as Mississippi is likely to be much more dangerous than in Colorado.


In fact, a new report shows where you live may play a major role in the quality of hospital care you get for various conditions.


The sixth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study shows the quality of healthcare at the nation's hospitals varies greatly among states.


Researchers ranked each of the country's nearly 5,000 hospitals on 26 common procedures and conditions and found better-performing hospitals tended to be in northern or sparsely populated states.


Here's how the 50 states and District of Columbia fared:


Rank
State

1
North Dakota

2
Florida

3
Ohio

4
Michigan

5
Maryland

6
Colorado

7
Pennsylvania

8
Connecticut

9
Utah

10
South Dakota

11
Virginia

12
Minnesota

13
Arizona

14
Montana

15
New Jersey

16
Maine

17
Illinois

18
Rhode Island

19
Washington

20
Indiana

21
Oregon

22
Washington, D.C.

23
New Hampshire

24
Idaho

25
California

26
Massachusetts

27
Missouri

28
Louisiana

29
North Carolina

30
Texas

31
New Mexico

32
Nebraska

33
New York

34
Kentucky

35
Delaware

36
Nevada

37
Georgia

38
Wisconsin

39
Alaska

40
Iowa

41
West Virginia

42
South Carolina

43
Wyoming

44
Hawaii

45
Oklahoma

46
Vermont

47
Kansas

48
Tennessee

49
Arkansas

50
Alabama

51
Mississippi





Hospital Care, State by State

"The quality chasm at American hospitals is real, and it is very alarming and concerning -- despite evidence of process improvements," says Samantha Collier, MD, HealthGrades' vice president of medical affairs, in a news release.


Although there are exceptional hospitals in even the lowest-ranking states, researchers say that, on average, patients get better quality healthcare in the higher-ranking states.


For example, the report shows that a person has a 55% increased chance of dying if he or she had a balloon angioplasty or other similar heart procedure in Texas rather than in New York.


"In Mississippi, your chance of dying from a heart attack is 49% higher, on average, than if you were treated in Colorado," says Collier.


Researchers say that the greatest differences at the state level were among certain heart procedures, such as balloon angioplasty, stenting, and others. For these procedures, New York was the best performing state and Alaska was the worst.


The report shows states such as Texas and Tennessee also had above-average death rates associated with these procedures -- which resulted in hundreds of unnecessary deaths between 2000 and 2002, researchers say. Meanwhile, hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and Florida had lower-than-normal death rates associated with these procedures that prevented many deaths.


A complete list of rankings for each of the 26 procedures studied at almost 5,000 hospitals is available at www.healthgrades.com.


Researchers compiled the rankings based on whether the patient outcomes at the various hospitals were better or worse than could normally be expected. A five-star rating reflects performance significantly better than expected, three stars reflects an average level of performance, and a one-star rating reflects care that was significantly worse than expected.

[Colexis Mom]

#8 here for Connecticut

[Irene]

# 15 for New Jersey

[statelady01]

Welcome to my 49th ranked world! Although my son has been in children's hospitals in #2 Florida and #49 Arkansas- both were excellent. Arkansas Children's in Little Rock is top notch and I surely didn't expect to see Arkansas ranked that low!

[mrsmaup]

We take our son once a month from the number 1 ranked state to the number 12th ranked state, so he can go to the bigger children's hospital!LOL!LOL!! How bizarre is that?!LOL!!

[Tara O'Hara]

Wow! We're 7th! I guess that's not too bad considering that lots of docs are leaving PA because of insurance premiums!

[luvnwdwgal]

I'm very happy and relieved to see that Ohio ranks #3!

[ProChristo]

Missouri is #27, and I would guess that's true for the rural areas, but St. Louis has many fantastic hospitals. I never question the care I'm getting.

[lkmom]

I thought Mass. would have been higher with all the great Boston hospitals!

[Dumbo]

I'm glad to be living in number 7 state. Just about 40 miles away is number 33 ranked New York state.

[mrsmaup]

Remember when you are reading the post, its not just what great hospitals are in a big city in your area, but what hospitals are like in ALL areas of your state. If a rural area does not have a hospital for many miles, then your rank goes down. If there are alot of "unnecessary" or "unexplained" deaths in your state, then the ranking goes down. It also ranks happiness and job satisfaction of Dr's and nurses and patient complaints, lawsuits, etc.

[loobyoxlip]

Michigan may be #4, but all those hospitals must be downstate! I would never go to a hospital up here for a procedure. They slaughtered my mom's neck when she had thyroid cancer and she eventually went to Mayo's - thank goodness! I know too many others with surgeries gone wrong up here, too.