HealthGrades has released its annual Hospital Quality in America Study. The for-profit company bases its ratings on Medicare data, assigning hospitals one star (poor), three star (as expected) and five star (best) quality ratings across 18 procedures and diagnoses. The study examines performance over a three-year period from 2002 to 2004. Ratings are available online at the HealthGrades Web site. Researchers note that the five star hospitals are generally hospitals with higher volume for procedures (a finding consistent with accepted theories) and those with higher rates of intensivists employed in their ICUs. Within the industry the exact weight of HealthGrades ratings is debated, but you can expect to hear all about it from hospitals that did well.
- see this report from HealthGrades.com (pdf)
- see this press release as well (pdf)