Consumer Reports compares hospitals

Media General News Service
Published: May 30, 2008

Consumers looking to treat the most serious illnesses have a new way to compare local hospitals.

A system posted Thursday by Consumer Reports rates nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide on the length of hospital stays and number of doctor visits for older adults facing chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes, renal failure, dementia, and liver, vascular and heart disease.

The ratings address complicated diseases that affect more than 90 million Americans. As a group, these diagnoses are responsible for seven of 10 deaths of older adults on Medicare, according to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, the key source of data for the rating system.

John Santa, director of the ConsumerReportsHealth.org health ratings center, said his group simplified the atlas data so consumers can better decide whether they want to fight the disease aggressively - with a slew of doctors and specialists - or as conservatively as possible, such as in cases of late-stage cancer or when a person otherwise wants minimal treatment. The rating also includes the patient’s after-Medicare out-of-pocket expense for a hospital stay.

“If you have a chronic disease, realize that you’re getting a different kind of care depending on the hospital you go to,“ Santa said. “We don’t want to make a judgment whether a hospital is good or bad. But when it comes to chronic disease, more treatment does not translate to better care.“

These new ratings are just the latest in a slew of health care industry surveys and databases that has emerged in the past several years. Commercial, nonprofit and government sources evaluate centers using a myriad of criteria, ranging from patient satisfaction surveys to accreditation standards to vital statistics.

The Dartmouth Medicare data has been compiled annually for nearly 30 years and is respected nationally.

Denise Remus, chief quality officer of BayCare Health System in the Tampa, Fla., area, said the Dartmouth data only looks at the sickest of patients facing complex, chronic conditions. She said the several weeklong hospital stays cited in the Consumer Reports study, for example, are longer than the five-day average that she said is descriptive of all patients at BayCare hospitals.

One of the best-known consumer health care ratings is http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, which launched four years ago. Operated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,

Hospital Compare now has 26 measurements by which to judge hospitals on its Web site, spokesman Don McLeod said. The most recent update added patient-experience survey results to the report and has been incredibly popular, he said.

Hospital Compare does not rate or grade hospitals, McLeod said. “We don’t rank anything. Our purpose is to educate consumers so they can make an informed decision.“

Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at or (813) 259-7365.