Dr. McGeorge Shows Patients How To Compare Hospitals - Health News ...

People spend hours, even days, researching what kind of car they want, comparing everything from features to reliability, but experts said they typically spend almost no time thinking about where they're going to have major surgery or go for treatment of serious problems like diabetes.

A recent national survey found only 41 percent of people understood there were large differences in their area hospitals.

Local 4's Dr. Frank McGeorge said a little research can go a long way.

One study done by a for-profit hospital rating service found by going to the highest-performing hospital compared to the lowest-performing, patients have a 72 percent lower chance of dying and an 80 percent lower chance of a complication.

McGeorge said extensive information on hospital quality is available to consumers for free on three different Web sites. All of them use similar data, collected by the government, that measures how well hospitals follow treatment guidelines and treatment outcomes for Medicare patients.

McGeorge said www.HealthGrades.com is the easiest to use, but it does operate for-profit by putting ads on the site, charging consumers for more advanced reports, and consulting with hospitals to improve their service.

U.S. News & World Report compiles a top 50 hospital list based on specialty, not individual conditions. McGeorge said the list is available online and has a few ads but is a good source to find the best of the best.

Finally, Medicare has information online at www.Hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. McGeorge reported this site is not as easy to use, but the information is completely unbiased. The Medicare site also allows consumers to locate hospitals within a specific distance from their ZIP code and compare three hospitals at a time by medical condition or surgical procedure. Potential patients can also compare patient satisfaction scores.

To help illustrate how to use the information, McGeorge selected four of...

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