52 Percent Lower Chance Of Dying At Top-rated Hospitals

The largest annual study of patient outcomes at each of the nation's 5,000 nonfederal hospitals found a wide gap in quality between the nation's best hospitals and all others. According to the study, issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, patients at highly rated hospitals have a 52 percent lower chance of dying compared with the U.S. hospital average, a quality chasm that has persisted for the last decade even as mortality rates, in general, have declined.

Read the HealthGrades study press release here.

Read the complete study report, The Twelfth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study October 2009.

Unfortunately, I did not notice any mention of the relative cost of medical care at the hospitals to see if costs affected outcomes.