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Entry bubble How Good is Your Hospital?

By: Nancy | August 21, 2008 | Category: Health

A hospital is one of those things you don't really think a lot about until you need it. But there's a research tool from the government that can help you figure out now, before there's an emergency, which hospital in your region can give you the best care and the best odds of survival whether you have a planned procedure or a medical emergency.

man in hospital bed shrugging

The US Department of Health and Human Services' Hospital Compare tool lets you search for and compare the ratings of hospitals by medical procedure or health condition or simply by location. USA Today took a look at the ratings of all the hospitals listed and developed a ranking of the hospitals around the country with the best and worst survival rates for heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia.

If a planned surgery is in your future, here's a list of questions to ask your doctor about the procedure and here's a checklist to use along with the Hospital Compare site to help you talk to your doctor and your insurance company about your hospital choices.

Have a concern or complaint about your or a loved one's hospital experience? Start with the doctor or hospital staffer involved and if you don't feel the problem's been resolved, move on to the hospital's administration, your state health department or state medical board.

I don't recommend anything to you without trying it out first. So I just did a search on Hospital Compare for my area and for my mom's in New Jersey and was pleased that all of our local hospitals rated well. Whew! Take a look—how does your local hospital measure up?

| Post a Comment | View Comments [8] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: hospital   medical   nancy  

Comments (8):

blue comment bubble Posted by hospitals on August 21, 2008 at 05:24 PM EDT

Another good website that allow you to find hospitals in your area is <a href="http://www.ushospitalfinder.com">us hospital finder</a>. Type in your address or zip code, it will show the hospitals within 30 miles of your location on a map. You can then click on the hospital and view its detail information including what services it provides.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Tayla on August 21, 2008 at 10:47 PM EDT

My 87 year old mother was in the Simi Valley hospital two years ago and we had a terrible experience with her care. Several evenings I would go to see her and she had a black and blue marks on her arm from an IV which they must have rushed to start and the liquid went under the top layer of her skin and she was in the telemetry ward. Other times the monitors alarm would going off and nobody would come and when I went to see her I had to hunt the nurses or the aids down to get them to come and take care of the machine alarms going off. It seemed like when you call them to do a simple thing like checking the IV bag that was finished it seem like your interrupting them and they would come with an attitude. I guess its because its an older person, but my mom was very sick and eventually passed, but her care associated with the hospital and the critical care pavillion was a nightmare. Unless things have improve its not a place I would have a senior love one unless your willing to be there 24/7.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Chillin N Chino on August 22, 2008 at 01:56 AM EDT

How good is my hospital? Well I’m not entirely sure. I haven't actually had an emergency, but I do get sick a lot. Up until I turned 18 I had the best doctor in the world. When I turned 18 the hospital switched my doctor because I was no longer a child. They gave me the same doctor that my parents have, a boy. I feel like when I go into a hospital and have personal questions, I don't want to be asking a man. I just feel uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, please don't think I’m bias towards men, I'm not. I did try out the man doctor for one visit and decided that he wasn't the perfect fit for me. I switched and got a women doctor. She was very nice at first, so I thought, but on my next visit, she and the nurses were so UN professional. I waited in the waiting area for over an hour and there was no one even there. And by this I mean patients. I was the only one. So I didn't understand what could be taking this long. When they finally called me in the nurses didn’t even check on me until half and hour later and the doctor didn't even come in until and hour and a half after that. There only reason she finally did come in was because I went to the nurse’s station and told the nurse that I had to go to school in an hour and my school is an hour away. She told me that the doctor would be right in. My intent when I went to the nurse was to tell her I was LEAVING, but she told me the doctor was coming. The doctor finally came in, and gave me all kinds of attitude. I couldn't believe it. I have gotten sick since then, but i refuse to go to the doctor because I'm still mad. I love the fact that Nancy here has given websites i can check out to find better doctors and look at ratings, I think its time for a change. I really hope that that doctor gets fired soon. I’m sure if she did it to me she's done it to someone else as well.

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blue comment bubble Posted by nursetoddy on August 23, 2008 at 03:57 AM EDT

My hospital has always been pretty great but with recent developments I'm not so sure about the future. My hospital is planning to eliminate all LPN's from acute care areas and say they are going to replace us with RN's. First of all, LPN's are currently the backbone and perform most one on one patient care. Why in this day and age of the baby boomers would any hospital want to get rid of experience longtime bedside nurses for new grads just out of school is beyond me. The nursing shortage is horrendous now, what's it going to be if they won't allow LPN's to be a part of the patient care team. They claim that if we are still working as LPN's at the end of a 3 year phase out we will be busted back to a patient care assistant and our wages will be cut. Excuse me??? The only thing that a RN does that I'm not allowed to do with my license is 1. Give Blood, 2. Push IV meds, 3. Hang IV electrolytes and 4. Chart a head to toe assessment. I assess my patients every time I walk into a room I'm just not allowed to chart it. This all seems pretty ignorant with the nursing shortages that are rampant across our country. I for one will NOT be busted back to a PCA and take a wage cut. I will look for a new job in a different field. I don't want to, but when push comes to shove, I certainly will. I currently work in a critical care unit and I love my job and I feel that I am just as equal as any RN I work with. I have completed basic cardiology and I am ACLS certified. Anyone else experiencing this or is my hospital the only stupid one in the world?

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blue comment bubble Posted by Donna on August 24, 2008 at 07:08 PM EDT

my hospital in Aspley qld aust have told me they had seen strange things appear before their eyes on a endoscopy and decided to pull them out and do tests they showed me the photos of them and i dont understand all that garbled stuff but they said these things they had never seen before had been so bright they had to take them out of my belly. I saw the pics of these bright thingys but i have no idea what they are. I also have a strange hernia not in a normal place but in the chest hmm kinda wierd eh.
other than that my hospital keeps tabs on me all the time and me doctor too. i seem to be always under their watch which means our hospitals whether they find strange things or if its normal they do their job quite well if you come to australia make sure you apply for insurance never know when you need it.

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blue comment bubble Posted by tlsmith3 on September 27, 2008 at 08:08 AM EDT

I went Oakwood Heritage hospital in Taylor Michigan and dropped my mom off with high hopes that this hospital would treat her well, based off of the reviews that I read on the internet about it. My mother received just the opposite she is still in the hospital I am highly upset about what she called me and told me, she said that a Caucasian lady called her a name a bad name that I don't even want to repeat on this comment but you could just about imagine and still no apologies from this lady. I am outraged at this incident because these people are suppose to be taking care of her instead there insulting her. I am a student and I am currently taking criminal justice and a politics class I know what an individual’s rights are and hers were violated I almost feel violated myself, while I may not want to repeat those racial comments on here I will to a lawyer. The Declaration of Independence was written July 4, 1776 to be exact, some people don't care to go by it but when it's their job on the line they will or they will probably lose it. I am quite sure no one wants an employee that's a liability and piling up law suits, because that's just what's going to happen running into to people that's going to stand up for their rights. I will not lie down and take this quietly. I want this person to learn a lesson and learn it well. All people are equal no matter what a person may think we are equal by law. I love people matter what color. A person is a person no matter what their color is. Thank you for letting me express myself and thank you for reading.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Hatethehater on December 14, 2008 at 03:21 PM EST

Was she confused like many patients are in hospitals? Do you and your mother have issues with people from other racial backgrounds? The last time I heard a racial slur, it was directed from a non-white to a non-white. A person may bring a lawsuit for just about any reason. However, a lawsuit won't benefit your mother, nor will she "win" enough to cover legal expenses. The reason... Wah wah somebody hurt my feelings. Did your mother live? We've all been called something aweful in our lifetimes. Make that person who stated the comment as a loser. Don't condemn an entire profession or building. Lumping one into a group instead of basing merit on the individual is the worst.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Equal Balance on June 21, 2009 at 12:59 AM EDT

My daughter took an overdose of a mood stabilizer by poor decision making. Upon intake and while groggy, the intake worker categorized her a a "petition" entry case. neither she nor we as parents were explained about "petition" cases. In this situation, the patient loses all rights and the handling is done by the doctor who rarely appears in most cases. I had a verbal run in with a beligerant, power hungry male RN who called in security when I verbally became assertive with him. Three uniformed cowards dressed like a SWAT team came in and proceeded to put on plastic gloves as if they were preparing for a confrontation. This all done in fron of my emotionally unstable daughter. They wisely took another very superb nurses intervention advice and they along with male knuckle head RN left the room. This was good as they would have had to be admitted had they attempted and physical confrontation with this author. They would have also been sued. Male RN knucklehead, cowardly called the Taylor police department who pulled me over as I departed within 15 minutes on my own. They were very pleasant and told me to save myself the hassle of going back to Heritage. I did not need the hassle.

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