NORFOLK, Neb.—Faith Regional Health Services officials are disputing a federal study that lists the hospital among 35 in the nation that performed worse than the national rate for heart failure.
Federal officials scored the nation’s nearly 4,500 hospitals. Almost all performed at the national average when it came to their patient mortality rates.
For heart failure, 38 hospitals were listed Thursday as performing better than the national rate. Faith Regional in Nebraska and 34 other hospitals across the nation were listed as performing worse.
For heart attacks, 17 performed better; seven worse. No Nebraska hospital was listed as performing better or worse.
Dr. Timothy Davy, Faith Regional’s vice president for medical affairs, said the study data come from the third and fourth quarters of 2005. Of the 21 patients who died at Faith Regional, he said Friday, 19 had told the hospital not to resuscitate them or provide only comfort care.
“They don’t want an all-out effort for their care. In many cases, if we’d done absolutely everything we could, it would be a violation of the patient’s wishes,” he said.
Davy also said 21 patients is not many for a study and that some of the 21 who were counted had been away from the hospital up to 30 days.
Cardiologist Doug Welsh said the average age of the 21 was 85.
“We should not dismiss it, but we need to look at the numbers and see what they were really measuring,” Welsh said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said posting the hospitals’ performance meets the administration’s goal of helping consumers know what they’re getting for their health care money.
The department hopes the ratings will spur hospitals to take steps to improve their ratings.
“It really wasn’t an attempt to embarrass hospitals in any way, shape or form,” said Herb Kuhn, deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The ratings took into account each hospital’s mortality rate, but it also incorporated other factors, primarily each hospital’s patient mix.
For examples, some hospitals see more elderly patients or more patients with diabetes than their competitors. So their ratings take that sicker patient mix into account.
Davy said of the study: “This is one fragmentary piece. It doesn’t look good from that angle, but it is one limited view of a whole picture.”
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Information from: Norfolk Daily News,
