US Pharm. 2011;36(9):HS-39-HS-40.
Despite being well liked by patients, more than 120 of the top U.S. hospitals have death rates for heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia significantly higher than the national average, according to a USA Today analysis of new Medicare data. Still, the hospitals were recommended by two-thirds of their patients or received patient satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. Some of the most renowned teaching hospitals do not perform well in preventing health care-acquired infections, according to a Consumer Reports On Health hospital ratings list in July.“You can judge how it feels to be in the hospital,” Yale cardiologist Harlan Krumholz, MD, who helped revise Medicare's hospital rating method, told USA Today. “But you can't judge whether they're doing everything well on the medical side.”
