New hospital ratings evaluate delivery of “typical care”

The Internet has made it easier to become an educated consumer. At the touch of a button, you can find reviews of thousands of products and services — even health services — from consumer groups and fellow customers. It’s no surprise that many people count on these reviews and rankings before visiting a hospital. For the past 25 years, US News and World Report has been listing the “best hospitals” in the United States. In a Viewpoint article in this week’s JAMA, the magazine’s top health analysts describe how they are expanding and changing the way they rate hospitals. Common procedures, conditions will be included Since 1990, US News has analyzed information from about 2,000 large hospitals in the United States and ranked the top 50 in each of 16 different specialties. “The program is designed for people with complex clinical needs who can’t find treatment at their community hospitals, and are looking to go elsewhere,” Ben Harder, chief of health analysis for US News and World Report, told me. In fact, the rankings “are not designed for use by patients in need of typical inpatient care,” he and coauthor Avery Comarow write in JAMA. That’s changing. The US News team has spent more than a year analyzing more than 5 million patient records regarding more than a dozen common procedures and medical conditions from more than 4,300 hospitals. Ratings for five of these were published online today. They are: hip r...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health best hospitals hospital rankings hospital ratings Source Type: news