St Vincent’s Among Few US Hospitals

Recognized For Heart Attack Survival

BRIDGEPORT — An analysis recently released to the public by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated St Vincent’s Medical Center is one of only 17 hospitals out of a total of 4,477 in the nation that had heart attack death rates better than the national rate. St Vincent’s also had the lowest death rate for heart attack patients among Connecticut’s 31 hospitals.

The government released its nationwide public report card June 20, measuring performance in the treatment of patients suffering from heart attacks or heart failure.

Officials took a conservative approach in scoring nearly 4,500 hospitals. Almost all performed at the national average when it came to their patient mortality rates.

Dor heart failure, however, 38 hospitals were listed as performing better than the national rate for heart failure, and 35 were listed as performing worse. For heart attacks, 17 performed better; seven worse. The ratings are based on hospital claims data filed from July 2005 to June 2006.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said that posting the hospitals’ performance meets the administration’s goal of helping consumers know what they are getting for their health care money.

“People need to know not only what their health care costs, but how good it is,” Secretary Leavitt said.

At the same time, the ratings will also spur hospitals to take steps to improve their ratings.

“It really wasn’t an attempt to embarrass hospitals in any way, shape or form,” said Herb Kuhn, deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The rating took into account each hospital’s mortality rate, but it also incorporated other factors, primarily each hospital’s patient mix. For example, some hospitals see more elderly patients or more patients with diabetes than their competitors. So their rating takes that sicker patient mix into account.

Nationally, the 30-day death rate from heart attacks is about 18 percent. For heart failure, it is about 11 percent.

Medicare officials said hospitals have already been notified of their ratings, and were given much more detailed information than what is being made available to the public. Quality improvement officials will work with the hospitals performing worse than the national average.

An earlier attempt some 20 years ago to measure hospital mortality rates foundered when hospitals questioned the methodology. It took many years for health care providers, consumer groups, and government officials to agree on a set of measures that all could support.

Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said hospitals strongly back the government’s effort to give consumers information about the quality of care provided. Some of those hospitals that performed poorly with heart patients have had questions about the rating system.

“They are very grateful to have the information so they know what they need to focus on,” Mr Umbdenstock said.

According to St Vincent’s president, the report is being hailed as a major step in ushering in a new transparency that will benefit consumers and offer them an opportunity to shop for care based on reliable objective information.

 “The CMS report clearly demonstrates the strength of St Vincent’s cardiology program not only locally but on a national level, and affirms its commitment to quality and achieving the highest standard in patient care,” said St Vincent’s President/CEO Susan L. Davis, RN, EdD. “It validates the efforts of so many dedicated and talented physicians and staff members who have built an outstanding cardiac program over the years.”

With the report dividing the 4,477 hospitals into three categories of performance, 17 ranked “better than the US national rate,” seven hospitals ranked “worse than the US national rate,” and 4,453 hospitals ranked “no different from the US national rate” for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack-AMI) admissions.

“This most recent AMI ranking is such a positive designation for St Vincent’s and the community because it not only proves our cardiac program is world class, but also because it provides an effective tool for area residents to use in selecting their hospital of choice,” said Jose Missri, MD, CMO, vice president of cardiovascular services and chairman of cardiovascular medicine. “It brings great pride both to St Vincent’s and the community we serve.”

According to the hospital-specific report received by St Vincent’s, CMS developed the new health outcomes measures or “report cards” for all hospitals in the nation to help improve their quality, and provide consumers with information to aid them in making health care decisions. The mortality measures include fee-for-service Medicare enrollees with a principal discharge diagnosis of AMI or HF at least 65 years of age at the time of their admission who were discharged from the hospital between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

Only patients enrolled in Medicare for at least one year prior to their admission were included. The rate reflects patients with AMI or HF who died during that period of any cause within a month of entering the hospital. CMS has also included in the reports available only to hospitals coded patient information that will assist doctors in determining why their facility may be experiencing a higher death rate.

Although CMS will not reveal specific statistics on each institution, consumers will be able to visit its website, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, scroll to a hospital and find out if it performed better, worse, or the same as the national rate.