Report on Hospital Quality in [community/state]

Quality in health care, including in hospitals, can be described as "doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way—and having the best possible results."

This report provides information on how well all the hospitals in [community/state] care for patients with a wide range of health problems. It can:

• Help you choose a hospital for yourself.
• Provide useful information for your loved ones if they need hospital care.
• Encourage hospitals to improve their quality.
• Help everyone learn more about hospital quality.

Why should you look at this information?

Don't people get good care in any hospital their doctor recommends? Here are the facts:

• All hospitals do not provide the same quality of care. Some hospitals are better than others.
• A particular hospital might do a very good job on some health problems and not such a good job on other health problems.
• Whenever people go to the hospital, they risk getting a new health problem while getting medical care for an existing problem. Hospitals vary in how well they protect patients from these risks.
• Your doctor, or the specialist or surgeon he or she recommends, may be highly skilled, but hospital quality also depends on how well all the hospital staff, such as the nurses, take care of you, and on how well the hospital is organized.

Given these facts, our goal is to give you information you can use to increase your chances of getting the best possible hospital care when you need it.

What information is available in the report?

There are two types of information provided in this report:

1. How often patients had medical complications while in the hospital.
2. How often patients died while in the hospital for certain health conditions and operations.

This information is provided about [X] hospitals. By looking at this information, you will be able to assess which hospitals have the fewest number of deaths and complications.

There are many ways to judge hospital quality. We are reporting this information because experience shows it is accurate, easily available for most hospitals from their administrative records, and of interest to members of the public.

Select this link to start comparing hospitals' results.