As is the case with all the data on Hospital Compare, you won't get a definitive answer to the question "What hospital should I choose?" But you will be pointed in the right direction. You're probably better off picking a place that has treated hundreds of patients, not a handful.
So click on the rightmost tab, labeled "Number of Medicare Patients," and look for the relevant condition or procedure. Generally, the same rule holds true for comparing hospitals. When you need an operation, a good rule of thumb is to go with the surgeon who's done the procedure 600 times, not the one who's on his sixth. Instead, look for large-magnitude differences across numerous measures. 70% who say so elsewhere, that's no big deal. If 68% of one hospital's patients say their pain was always well controlled, vs. Similarly, ignore small differences in ratings and outcomes. Among hospitals, pay attention only if there's at least a two-star difference, says Boccuti. Surveys of patient experiences are summarized on a scale of one to five stars. Focus on your own health needs among 10 major categories (surgical care or pregnancy and delivery, for example), general medical outcomes, the cost of care, and hospital "value"-costs relative to a patient's well-being.ĭon't sweat the small stuff. Learn about using government data - View archived. Next, check with your health insurer to see whether these hospitals are in your network.Īt Hospital Compare, you can study up to three area hospitals at a time. These datasets allow you to compare the quality of care provided in Medicare-certified hospitals, Veterans Administration (VA) medical centers, and Department of Defense (DoD) hospitals nationwide. Before you even start, call doctors you might work with to see what hospitals they use. Here's a quick guide to using the site.Ĭast a narrow net. Picking a hospital based on familiarity or convenience often trumps sifting through quality-of-care data-not necessarily a good thing, says Christina Boccuti, a Medicare expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The information on Hospital Compare, however, can be overwhelming. You can see ratings for a dozen aspects of the hospital experience, including cleanliness of rooms, nurses' communication skills, and clarity of discharge instructions.ĭrawing upon this and other data gathered by Medicare-ranging from timeliness of stroke care to possible overuse of MRIs and CT scans-you can make better decisions about what hospital to use the next time you need one, whether or not you're on Medicare. In April the site added its first-ever ratings of hospital stays based on patients' assessments-think Yelp for the hospital-gown set. Are the bathrooms clean? That's just one of the many questions you'll see answered on Medicare's Hospital Compare website, a trove of information designed to help you select where to get medical care.
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