BetterDoctor, an online consumer health site, reports that they have “crunched the numbers” and found the hospitals with the lowest readmission numbers, complications and deaths. Memorial Misson Hospital and Asheville Surgery Center showed the second best statistics in the country. The other cities rounding out the top five were Sarasota FL, Chattanooga TN, Houston TX, and Rancho Mirage CA. Meanwhile two other NC hospitals, Vidant Medical Center in Greenville and University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill rank among the 25 worst on BetterDoctor’s list.
According to BetterDoctor, “unusually low complications and death rates signal a hospital is proving truly excellent care, while on the other hand, underperforming hospitals are dangerous for patients in need of more serious care.”
As part of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with excessive readmissions and higher than normal mortality rates for certain serious conditions are starting to be financially penalized. Because it pays for Medicare recipient’s care, the government could easily track patient outcomes and readmission rates. By looking at data of millions of Americans’ hospital visits, Medicare could calculate average rates of readmissions complications and death rates.
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Medicare started tracking readmissions complications and deaths data in 2012. After each year, Medicare imposes modest penalties to hospitals who do not improve their scores. For 2015, 83% of Medicare patients will receive care at hospitals with no penalties or less than 1% in penalties – a good indicator that the vast majority of U.S. hospitals do a good job controlling readmissions as best as possible.
But, that leaves 17% of Medicare patients receiving care from hospitals that are underperforming across multiple categories – and to those patients, setting foot in the wrong hospital can be the difference between life and death.
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