PENNSYLVANIA Death rates dropped at hospitals, data show

The steepest decrease in mortality rates was seen in patients who went into the hospital for complicated hip operations.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Death rates for 10 of 11 key ailments and procedures at Pennsylvania hospitals dropped between 1999 and last year, says new data released Thursday by a state agency that studies health-care costs.
Meanwhile, the amount of time patients spent in the hospital dropped in nine categories within the same two-year span.
"Hospitals and physicians continue to improve the quality of care they provide, and the patients are the winners," said Marc P. Volavka, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
The data accompanied the 2001 hospital performance report by the council.
Information in report
The report provides information on individual hospitals, indicating whether their mortality rating for a particular ailment was higher, lower or about as expected; whether they had an unusual number of abnormally short or long hospital stays for a particular condition; and whether they had an unusual number of re-admissions for a specific ailment or for complications.
The council found that the steepest decrease in mortality rates was seen in patients who went into the hospital for complicated hip operations. Their mortality rate dropped 17.6 percent from 3.0 percent to 2.4 percent, the data says.
The mortality rate for kidney failure followed, with a drop from 11.3 percent in 1999 to 9.4 percent in 2001, a difference of 16.5 percent, the council reported.
The sole increase in mortality rates was a slight one for deaths resulting during treatment of blood clots in lungs, which increased by 0.7 percent to 4 percent.
Hospitals also reported wide variations in patients' length of stay among hospitals, with the widest variation being for complicated stomach and small intestinal operations. Hospitals' average length of stay for the procedures ranged from six to 18 days, and the statewide average was 10.8 days.
Hospitals also saw substantial variation in readmission rates in 2001, with readmission rates for congestive heart failure, for example, ranging from 9 percent to 47 percent. Statewide, the average was 25.4 percent for the ailment.
The report was welcomed by the head of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
"Pennsylvania's hospitals continue to provide their patients with high-quality medical care, despite the crushing burdens of skyrocketing medical professional liability insurance premiums, persistent shortages of key medical professionals, escalating disaster/bioterrorism preparedness costs, and ongoing reimbursement shortfalls from Medicare and Medicaid," said Carolyn F. Scanlan, president of the lobbying organization.