Comparing Hospitals

Here's a handy website you might want to browse.

"The Hospital Compare website was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), along with the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). The HQA is a public-private collaboration established to promote reporting on hospital quality of care. The HQA consists of organizations that represent consumers, hospitals, doctors and nurses, employers, accrediting organizations, and Federal agencies. The information on this website can be used by any adult needing hospital care."

You can search by your city or zip code--I used zip and then indicated the number of miles. Seven hospitals are within 10 miles, so I compared Riverside and Ohio State. In almost every category Riverside was rated higher than OSU, and also had more patients. Where it wasn't higher they were the same. I haven't figured out all the features yet. OSU had no information for patient ratings of care, so those couldn't be compared, but they weren't particularly ecstatic for Riverside. Maybe patients are just grumpy when they don't feel good? Also, I seemed to lose my place when I'd click on an explanation and had to start all over which was frustrating.

Since we spend so much time at Lake Erie, maybe I'd better take a look at Port Clinton and Sandusky.