By Journal Staff Report
Hospital death rates published Thursday in USA Today show that Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces exceeded the national average for heart failure in 2007, based on newly released Medicare data.
San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington reported fewer pneumonia deaths and Heart Hospital of New Mexico in Albuquerque had fewer heart attack deaths than average for Medicare patients nationally, according to the data.
Memorial Medical Center experienced a mortality rate of 15.9 percent from July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007, exceeding the national rate of 11 percent, according to data collected by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, better known as CMS.
Dr. Bruce San Filippo, Memorial’s chief medical officer, said Memorial treats a large patient population with late-stage illnesses such as renal disease and metastatic cancer.
“End-of-life issues are prominent in the population here,” San Filippo said Thursday. Many patients facing terminal illnesses make choices “that might have precluded the kind of care that normal heart failure patients might undergo.”
San Felippo said Memorial plans to use the data to improve care and applauded CMS’ decision to release the data. CMS has never before released mortality data for hospitals.
(c) 2008 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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