Almost All U.S. Hospitals Meet Expectations for MI and Heart Failure Mortality

BALTIMORE, June 22 -- Most of the 5,000 hospitals that care for Medicare patients meet the national average for 30-day mortality from MI or heart failure, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data show.

On the basis of Medicare admissions from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006, CMS reported that the anticipated 30-day mortality for heart attack was 16% and 30-day mortality for heart failure was 11%.

Nationally, only 35 hospitals had higher than anticipated heart failure mortality and only seven had higher than anticipated mortality following heart attack.

But there were few star performers either: only 17 hospitals had a lower 30-day mortality for MI and only 38 had a lower 30-day heart failure mortality rate.

The information is available on the Hospital Compare website, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The same site also has information on a number of quality measures for treatment of patients hospitalized for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and/or surgery.

The site does not provide a separate list of hospitals that did better or worse than expected, but a given hospital's performance can be obtained by entering the hospital name and state.

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that the report was part of his agency's "continuing effort to provide better, value-based, health care at a lower cost for all Americans."

Moreover, he said, the release of the hospital data was "a glimpse into the future. For most of its history, Medicare has been paying for services but not for results."