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SAN FRANCISCO-- Picking a good hospital is tough, so many people turn to hospital ratings to see which one is the best. But those ratings may not mean very much.
Mistakes happen. And too often they happen in hospitals. So how do you find the safest place for your Mom when she needs a new hip?
On their Web site, one way the Leapfrog Group ranks hospitals is with a "safe practices" score. The score is based on things like: is the hospital staff washing their hands regularly? Do they have a pharmacist closely looking over medication lists to see if there are dangerous interactions?
A higher ranking suggests a safer hospital. But new research shows hospitals that are top-rated on safe practice surveys do not have lower death rates.
Dr. Leslie Kernisan, of University of California San Francisco Medical Center, is the lead author of the study. She said, "We found that mortality rates seem to be pretty much the same, no matter which quartile the hospital fell into."
She thinks Leapfrog is on the right track trying to identify which hospitals are doing the safer things, but wonders if asking management to fill out a long survey is the best way to find this information.
Because management might not really know what's going on, on the hospital floors. Her advice for patients and their families is to pay attention. She said, "Just be really proactive when you are in the hospital about asking questions, and you know, trying to watch for yourself to make sure things aren't slipping through the cracks. Everybody in the hospital is trying really hard, but they've got a hard job to do right now."
E-mail: drkim@ksl.com
