Death rates for patients with pneumonia, heart attacks and heart failure are now posted on Medicare's Web site, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Most area hospitals show 30-day mortality rates for pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure that are little different from the national average of about 16 percent.
Last year the names of hospitals were published that had unusually high or low death rates for heart attacks and heart failure; this year, it's supplied the actual numbers for all hospitals and percentages and graphs are also available. These numbers can be compared with the national mortality rate for heart attack (16.1 percent), heart failure (11.1 percent) and pneumonia (11.4 percent).
Lorraine Ryan, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a press release that in addition to mortality measures, the site also unveiled new nationwide data on pediatric asthma, information which was previously unavailable for most hospitals.
New additions also include the pneumonia scores, which track how many Medicare patients with pneumonia died within 30 days of being hospitalized. Nationally, the 30-day pneumonia death rate was 11.4 percent. The new data on mortality rates reflects fee-for-service Medicare patients from July 2006 to June 2007.
Top scorers in the recommendation category included San Ramon Regional Medical Center, Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame and Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. More than three-fourths of patients at these institutions said they would recommend the hospital.
All East Bay hospitals ranked as average for pneumonia death rates with one exception: John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek performed significantly better than most other institutions. John Muir is one of only four hospitals in California and 41 nationwide to receive a top ranking. It had a risk-adjusted pneumonia death rate of 8.2 percent, compared to a nationwide average of 11.4 percent.
Four Illinois hospitals had impressively low death rates; three hospitals had unexpectedly high death rates. The medical centers in Illinois with lower-than-expected pneumonia death rates are Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights (9.1 percent), Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago (7.8 percent), Edward Hospital in Naperville (8.1 percent) and ENH, based in Evanston (8.9 percent).
ENH owns Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital and Highland Park Hospital.
