Hospital shopping? Site makes it easier

Mon., June 2, 2008

From Staffwire Reports The Spokesman-Review

Even for the most diligent shoppers, health care has long been a difficult area. Although scores of Web sites can lead you to a good restaurant or a deal on a TV set, few will help you choose a hospital.

One site worth visiting is the Hospital Compare Web site ( www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Organized with an eye for detail and relevant information, this site lets you track down and analyze hospital performance using gobs of details submitted to state and federal agencies.

An easy-to-use search tool enables you to find and compare hospitals in your area on 36 criteria, such as the percentage of surgery patients who received the appropriate preventive antibiotic or the percentage of heart attack patients given aspirin at arrival (the recommended practice).

We ran a check on Deaconess Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital and Sacred Heart Medical Center, to see how useful and easily found the data might be.

We entered a request to track frequency of surgery patients receiving pre-surgical doses of antibiotics, covering the latest period.

The site gave us either straight box summaries or graphical displays of the answer: of the three, Sacred Heart and Holy Family administer antibiotics before 95 percent al all surgeries. Deaconess scores 90 percent.

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Hospital shopping? Site makes it easier

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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