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SALT LAKE CITY (Debbie Hummel, AP) -- The average cost of care for pneumonia patients hospitalized in Utah last year was about $8,000 for minor cases of the illness and almost $14,000 for more extreme cases, but a few hospitals were much higher and some significantly lower, according to the latest state report intended to help consumers make choices about health care.
The report, made public Tuesday and accessible on the "MyHealthCare" section of the Utah Department of Health's Web site, is the latest in a public service mandated by the Legislature.
The 2005 law requires the Health Data Committee to report health facility performance annually. The hospital comparisons are meant to assist consumers by allowing them to access quality, patient safety and cost information.
While health insurance providers often dictate where patients must receive care, the reports give consumers additional information and could give them cost comparisons for planned procedures where insurance companies allow some choices, said Terry Haven, consumer representative for the committee.
"It's a way for them to ask the right questions," she said. "These reports coupled with the 'MyHealthCare' site, really looks at 'how can I be an informed consumer?"'
Tuesday's report allows the public to see how much the pneumonia patients paid on average for health care in each of the state's hospitals that treated adult pneumonia patients in 2005. The data are split between minor or moderate cases, which required an average hospital stay of 3.2 days, and major or extreme cases that had an average stay of 4.7 days.
Milford Valley Memorial Hospital had the lowest average charge for minor cases of pneumonia at $3,907 -- but the hospital saw fewer than five pneumonia patients in 2005. The most expensive average for a minor case of the illness was at Bountiful's South Davis Community Hospital -- $14,695. Again, that hospital saw fewer than five pneumonia patients.
The cost averages at hospitals that see fewer patients can be more easily skewed by individual cases, Haven said. She said those anomalies will be apparent.
"It's not that we don't know that there's problems, but we're working on how best can we do this and try to come up with the best product that we can," she said.
A message left with South Davis Community Hospital regarding the high average was not immediately returned Tuesday.
"We think the more empowered the health care consumer is, the more knowledgeable the health care consumer is going to be," said Jess Gomez, spokesman for LDS Hospital, Intermountain Healthcare's flagship hospital. "We would just remind consumers that it's one piece of the puzzle."
Gomez said when consumers look at the reports they need to realize that different hospitals have different patient mixes and some hospitals might see patients with more acute forms of illness because they have staff with the expertise for those illnesses. The result can appear in higher costs or mortality rates because that hospital is treating more seriously ill individuals.
Other reports accessible in the "MyHealthCare Resource" section of the Health Department's Web site offer comparisons on hip and knee surgeries, heart surgeries, maternity and newborn services and the average costs for 62 common procedures and conditions. A report on gallbladder and other general surgeries is upcoming and all the reports will be updated next year, said Mike Martin, a department research consultant.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
