Death by Hospital Admission

If the local Board of Health grades your favorite restaurant a “D”, what do you do?  Keep eating there because the lo mein is so tasty, it’s worth the risk?  Or do you move on down the street to a more sanitary establishment? Would you be surprised to learn hospitals also get ratings that should be considered when evaluating inpatient admission decisions?

A hospital report card was recently issued by Healthgrades entitled “American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013: Healthgrades Report to the Nation”.  This study was based on medicare services at 4500 hospitals on the 4 areas that make up a majority of hospital related deaths:

• Heart attack
• Coronary Artery Bypass
• Pneumonia
• Sepsis

The bottom line–when treated at the “best” facilities patients have a:

• 55% lower risk of death,
• 42% lower risk of adverse complications.

Nothing takes the place of thoughtful discussions and open communication with one’s treating physician prior to any hospital admission.  In addition, we find that the involvement of the right Utilization Review vendor can make a huge difference when it comes to monitoring requests for admission, and knowing which facilities have the best clinical outcomes.

• Is your UR vendor accredited by URAC?
• Does your UR vendor rubber stamp admission requests?
• Is your UR vendor using the latest scientific evidence to optimize outcomes?

 

Call us, We can do better.

William Faris, JD
Chief Executive Officer
502-495-5040
william.faris@omca.biz
www.omca.biz

 

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