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How does your hospital compare?TRI-COUNTY AREA—Even hospitals get report cards. The New York State Health Accountability Foundation has just issued (Oct. 28) their latest report for hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont. People can search hospitals by counties and find out how they rate in many areas of patient care, mortality rates, charges and what the patients thought. All the data is available at http://www.abouthealthquality.org. The information came from data the hospitals provided, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers, New York State’s Department of Health Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) and from the Leapfrog Group. The new data is taken from January to December of 2007. This is the third year the foundation has done the report cards. The reports cover many different types of cases. It includes information on pneumonia, angioplasty, births, asthma, diabetes, chemotherapy. To see how the hospitals rated against each other and the state average in some areas, see the graph in the middle of the page. Once on the Web site, go to the 2008 report card link found in the left side column. By clicking on the map of the states, you will be able to select a county to compare. It will show either the HMOs or hospitals in that county. The list of hospitals in that county allows you see how they compare to each other. On the left hand side is a list of different care, procedures, patient safety and satisfaction information. To see where that information came from, click the icon below the category name that looks like a green plus sign on a magnifying glass. To see all of the information about one hospital, just click on the name. Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls saw 108 patients for pneumonia. The average stay was a little over four days and the average charge was $7,881.97. The inpatient mortality was 3.68 percent. Within 30 days of being discharged, 11.3 percent or pneumonia patients died. Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira had 323 pneumonia patients. The average stay was just over four and a half days and the average charge was $9,210.88. The inpatient mortality rate was 4.39 percent and 10.7 percent of patients within 30 days of being discharged. At Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital in Bath they had 95 pneumonia cases. The average stay was less then three and a half days and the average cost was $5,471.18. Of patients admitted with pneumonia, 6.58 percent died while at the hospital and 10.7 percent died within 30 days of being discharged. Soldiers and Sailors in Penn Yan saw 71 patients for pneumonia. The average stay was three and a half days and the average cost was $6,021.25 (all average costs listed are before insurance discounts). Of patients that had pneumonia, 8.6 percent died while at the hospital and 11.1 percent died within 30 days of discharge. Lara Turbide, vice president for community services at Soldiers and Sailors and also Geneva General, said that when it comes to such report cards, they like to use the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She said that it breaks down the different areas of care and provides a more accurate picture of the different practices. Soldiers and Sailors scored higher in two areas listed on the graph than Geneva General did. Geneva General’s score for overall heart attack score was 91.91 percent and overall heart failure care score was 88.24 percent. They scored higher in overall pneumonia care though, with 90.59 percent. Schuyler Hospital had the most patients for neonatal care with 161 patients. The average stay was less than two days and the charge was $1,331.86. Arnot Ogden also had the most people in for normal neonatal care with 1,197 patients. The next highest number of patients was for pneumonia. The average stay was under two and a half days and the charge was $1,864.68. Soldiers and Sailors had the most amount in for depressive neuroses with 88 patients. The average stay was five and a half days and the charge was $5,307.79. Ira Davenport had the most patients in for heart failure with 104. The average stay was just over three and a half days and the charge was $5,764.68. If information is available, all four hospitals are also close to the state average for birth trauma and transfusion reactions. Schuyler had data of 338 total births. Of that, 65 were Cesarean Sections. The average stay was just over two and a half days and the average charge was $7,983.44. Arnot Ogden had 484 Cesarean Sections alone. The average stay was under three and a half days and the average charge was $6,354.97. Both Sailors and Soldiers and Ira Davenport do not have data available for the numbers of births performed at the hospital. The only information for Davenport in that area is that for 2007 they had one normal neonatal birth. The report also gives some information on angioplasty for the hospitals. The only mortality information available is for Arnot. The state average of inpatient deaths is .75 percent and Arnot’s average is 1.29 percent. They had 145 patients with an average stay of just over two days. The average charge was $25,364.64. Schuyler Hospital had 10 asthma patients. The average stay was just under four and a half days and the charge was $8,445.55. Arnot Ogden had 79 asthma patients. The average stay was almost three days and the average charge was $5,554.23. There is information on asthma care for all four hospitals. Soldiers and Sailors had only one asthma patient who stayed for one day. The charge was $2,263.04. Ira Davenport had 24 patients. The average stay was just over two and a half days with the charge being $3,679.89. While it does not give a number compared to statewide, the report card also lists how often during surgery in cases of technical difficulty there is accidental puncture and laceration. Soldiers and Sailors, Ira Davenport and Arnot Ogden are all close to the statewide average. Schuyler Hospital is marked as being significantly below that. The survey also includes patient input. If available, the survey shows how many thought the room was clean, if it was always quiet at night or if pain was always controlled well. At Soldiers and Sailors, 88 percent of patients agreed that doctors always communicated well. In the same area, they did not score the hospital well on always being quiet at night. Only 63 percent thought it was. In the end though, 81 percent of them said they would recommend Soldiers and Sailors. Patients at Ira Davenport agreed in the same areas. The highest was doctor communication with 83 percent of them agreeing and only 49 percent of them saying the hospital was quiet at night. Just over half, 55 percent of the patients, said they would recommend the hospital. At Arnot Ogden, 60 percent of the patients gave the hospital a rating nine out of 10. In the survey, 67 percent of the patients said their pain was controlled well and 72 percent said they would recommend the hospital. There is no patient input available for Schuyler Hospital. |
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