[Mb-civic] Studies Fault Hospitals on Basics - Washington Post
William Swiggard
swiggard at comcast.net
Thu Jul 21 04:12:44 PDT 2005
<>Studies Fault Hospitals on Basics
Wide Variations In Quality of Care Are Found
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A03
U.S. hospitals are improving the quality of the care they provide, but
even the best fail too often to offer the right treatments, such as
immediately giving aspirin to victims of heart attacks and properly
administering antibiotics to pneumonia patients, according to the two
most comprehensive analyses of the issue.
The studies of more than 3,000 hospitals nationwide found that despite
overall improvement, care varies dramatically around the country, with
those in the North and Midwest generally outperforming those in the
South and West.
<>Even within regions, the quality of care is inconsistent, the studies
show. Among the 40 most populous regions, for example, Washington area
hospitals ranked 10th in treating a common condition in which the heart
slowly fails but only 28th in caring for victims of sudden heart attacks
and 29th in dealing with pneumonia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002077.html
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