VA Bares Its Mortality Rate
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in November started posting online comparisons of the nation’s 152 VA hospitals based on patient outcomes. Information includes:
- Surgical death rate, over the past 12 months
- Acute-care death rate
- Intensive-care unit death rate
- Ventilator-acquired pneumonia rate
- Rate of intravenous-line infections
- Hospital readmission rate
Full article on changes in VA care.
I wish all hospitals would disclose these metrics. I also wish payers would reward high quality and penalize low quality. Currently, there is no real incentive to perform above average.
Interesting. Now let’s get all the other hospitals to do this.
It seems to me that hospitals that get money from Medicare (and Medicaid) should be required to post this information.
This is a very small step in the right direction.
From the do not believe everything is properly measured department, here are some ways to improve on these metrics that have nothing to with higher quality health care:
1. Refuse to do surgery on medically fragile patients or those with potential complications that result in higher mortality.
2. Discharge acute care patients close to death to skilled nursing or hospice.
3. Administratively move people out of the ICU just before they die.
4. Stop diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia–existing clinical signs and symptoms do not identify all the patients with VAP and other problems can produce similar symptoms.
I, as well, would very much like to see these metrics for all hospitals. This should’ve been a key part of any health care bill.