HealthGrades names best hospitals in emergency care

The best hospitals in emergency care are concentrated in Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cleveland, Phoenix, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit, according to a new report from HealthGrades released yesterday. The analysis found that roughly 36 percent of these "Emergency Medicine Excellence" hospitals were concentrated in those eight cities. The report (.pdf) looked at risk-adjusted mortality rates of patients admitted through the emergency department and found that hospitals in Milwaukee; Phoenix; Prescott, Ariz.; Cincinnati; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baltimore; Traverse City, Mich.; Dayton, Ohio; Cleveland; Fargo, N.D.; and Detroit had the lowest mortality rates. If all hospitals performed at the level of emergency medicine excellence, an additional 170,856 people could have potentially survived their emergency hospitalization, the company said in a statement.

The report also found that overall, ED admissions for heart attacks were down 1.7 percent from 2008 to 2010, and stroke admissions were up 2.2 percent among Medicare recipients. Press release