Thursday, 22 May 2008
Hospital Reality Check
[EDITORIAL NOTE 1: Eric Schubert, who is vice president, Communications and Public Affairs at Ecumen, Minnesota's largest non-profit senior housing, services and development company, interviewed me for the company's blog, Changing Aging (not affiliated with Dr. Bill Thomas's blog of the same name). He asked some good questions and I enjoyed the interview.]
[EDITORIAL NOTE 2: Ann Austin, the college student I quoted in Tuesday's post, When Elders Return to College, has posted a response titled - ahem - Continuing on the Elderly.]
[EDITORIAL NOTE 3: For those who are annoyed that Typepad is not remembering your data when you leave a comment here, I have no explanation; it is not my doing. The best I can offer is that it happens to me on other blogs more often than not and I just type in my name, etc. The blogosphere, unfortunately, is not a perfect world.]
You may have noticed an advertisement in your hometown paper yesterday that looks similar to this one on the left. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) bought space on the same day in newspapers large and small in all 50 states to raise awareness of their Hospital Compare service.
Despite its connection with CMS, this website is a resource for all adults, not just Medicare beneficiaries. You will find comparative data about your local hospitals ranging from hospital-reported information on outcome of treatment for certain conditions and procedures and how much Medicare paid for them, to patient satisfaction surveys of services such as cleanliness of rooms, the responsiveness of the staff and more.
Speaking during a media telebriefing on Tuesday, CMS Acting Administrator, Kerry Weems, said that 2521 hospitals are included in the website and the data is updated quarterly. The next update is due in July so it's never far out of date.
Hospital Compare shows how often hospitals provide some of the care that is recommended for patients being treated for a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia, or patients having surgery. Hospitals voluntarily submit data from their medical records about the treatments their adult patients receive for these conditions, including patients with Medicare and those who do not have Medicare.
We can all cite our favorite instances of waste of taxpayer money (that famous bridge to nowhere comes to mind), but it’s been my experience that within agencies of the federal government, there is some excellent work being done to keep us informed. This is one of them and you can find an overview of the service here.
Depending on our health requirements and our physicians’ affiliations, we don’t always have a choice of hospitals when we need one, but we often do and this website is worth bookmarking for when you or a loved one requires hospitalization.
[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Leah Aranoff wonders Erato Where Art Thou.]
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
Referring to the Ann Austin reponse:
One of the things she said was "Don’t get me wrong, having grown up around many from an older generation (my granparents, my friends’ grandparents, teachers, coaches, and my U.S. Marine veteran neighbor just to name a few), I truly repsect the wealth of knowledge and unique experiences that all of these people have and am thankful to them for sharing with me. I’ve learned many things"
This sounds exactly like the preface people use right before they say something derogatory about a certain group. "Don't get me wrong...some of my best friends are -------- (fill in the blank")
Posted by: TNwoman on May 22, 2008 8:26:31 AM
I choose to interpret Ann's preface as admitting that older people have been valuable in her upbringing--a compliment. That she continues as she did just means that she is venting. Perhaps it would be better for her to vent privately, but I still think we are over-reacting.
Posted by: Cop Car on May 22, 2008 8:44:31 AM
Hospital Compare was mentioned on our local news yesterday evening. It's certainly reflects a very positive approach to de-throne-ing the AMA medical system and requiring accountability from all aspects of the American medical business -- an accountability that does not require or justify the expense, both in terms of money & emotions, of a malpractice suit.
Unfortunately, the flaw is huge: "Hospitals voluntarily submit data". Now we need to move to the concept of requiring data be submitted and providing a tool for verfication that the data is indeed correct.
Posted by: CTGrandmother on May 22, 2008 9:00:20 AM
I think what she is forgetting is that any class can have a couple of people who distract the whole class from moving forward because they either don't have the foundation to understand the work or they are slower learners. In the class she was taking it just happened to be older people and she hopped on it. Doesn't say much for her thinking, or her understanding.
Posted by: Zuleme on May 22, 2008 10:25:02 AM
I read the link above and her comment but hadn't gone to read her first one. Since she said she offered to help the woman outside of class but the woman preferred to talk to the professor during class and the professor catered to her, it sounds like this was more the fault of the professor than anybody else. She said he was easily distracted anyway. That can be frustrating to everybody in the class hoping to move forward on the topic at hand. Anyway interesting insight into the issue.
Posted by: Rain on May 22, 2008 10:25:47 AM
I mentioned and linked Hospital Compare on my blog a few months ago. It's a great site and I'm glad you mentioned it here so it gets more exposure than my lil' corner of the blogosphere gives it. Nice to see some of our tax dollars are being used wisely.
Posted by: Kay Dennison on May 22, 2008 1:38:01 PM
Seeing Ann posing with a "stuffed toy" is rather juvenile in my book....Maybe she could fill in her wasted moments in class by working on her image?
Posted by: Judy W on May 23, 2008 11:59:39 AM
