quality
CT hospitals well below US average in patient satisfaction
Patients at New Haven hospitals are the most satisfied in CT, but the bar is pretty low. New Haven’s hospitals ranked 204th out of 295 hospital referral regions in patient satisfaction, according to a calculation by Kaiser Health News based on HHS data. Hartford’s hospitals ranked 215th and Bridgeport’s were 227th. If you were thinking…
Read MoreStudy finds new brain stent actually associated with More strokes, approval process faulted – CEPAC webinar
A study of the effectiveness of a brain stent, designed to reduce strokes, instead caused so many more strokes in patients (14.7%) than a control group (5.8%) that the study was quickly halted. The expensive stents had been approved by the FDA under a humanitarian exemption from usual safety reviews. The stent has been implanted…
Read MoreSeptember CT health policy quiz – CT health care quality
Test your knowledge of health care quality in CT. Take the September CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreCEPAC meeting
The New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council held its first meeting last month in Boston. CEPAC is an initiative of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, funded by the US Agency for Healthcare Quality and Review. To make informed healthcare decisions policymakers, patients and clinicians need rigorous evidence on the comparative risks and…
Read MoreUS News’s hospital rankings out — CT performance disappointing
CT hospitals did not fare particularly well in the new 2011 US News hospital rankings. None ranked in the Honor Roll of best hospitals nationally. Only two of 47 total CT hospitals ranked nationally in any specialty – Yale New Haven #8 in diabetes and endocrinology and #7 in pediatrics: diabetes and endocrinology, and CT…
Read MoreQuality of care in CT remains high
AHRQ’s new 2010 Health Care Quality and Disparities reports find that our state is among the best in the overall quality of care we receive, however we lag behind the rest of New England in prevention and acute treatment and behind others for chronic disease management and health outcomes. Nationally, urban – rural disparities in…
Read MoreConsumers getting too many heart tests
A new survey by Consumers Union finds that most 40 to 60 year olds with no symptoms or risk factors who see a doctor are routinely getting unnecessary heart tests including EKGs (50%), exercise stress tests (21%), and ultrasounds of the carotid arteries (7%). Few respondents were aware of the risks and complications that can…
Read MoreUConn Dempsey Hospital’s high use of controversial scans questioned
Patients at UConn’s Dempsey Hospital in Farmington are nearly ten times more likely to receive “combination CT scans” than at other CT or US hospitals; other CT hospitals’ rates are similar to the national average. In 2008 national rates for the higher intensity scans were 5% for chest scans and 19% for abdominal scans; at…
Read MoreSerious quality of care questions in defibrillator implants
A new study on over 100,000 patients found that over one in five who received heart defibrillator implants shouldn’t have, based on best practice guidelines. The implants require surgery, with a risk of complications, and cost about $25,000 each. Not only was the surgery risky and expensive, but the 22% of patients who should not…
Read MoreOnline calculator outlines bottom line business case for quality
I’ve been playing with NCQA’s Quality Dividend Calculator – a cool toy that estimates how much improving health care quality can mean to a company’s bottom line. Visitors input some basic information about a company (I made mine up) such as number of employees, ages/gender, total revenues, overhead percentages, area of the US, industry, how…
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