Hospital Mortality Rates Are Studied

U.S. researchers say they’ve found hospitals with high and low Medicare quality performance levels differ little in their mortality rates.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers studied hospital death rates for three common conditions and found measures of quality care were unrelated to the hospitals’ mortality rates.

Senior author Dr. Rachel Werner, an assistant professor of medicine, and colleagues analyzed data collected during 2004, comparing hospital performance for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia with hospital risk-adjusted death rates, which were measured using Medicare Part A claims data. A total of 3,657 acute care hospitals were included in the study.

No substantial relationship was found in death rates between hospitals performing in the 25th percentile versus those in the 75th percentile.

The research is published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.