About Healthgrades Hospitals

Knowing that you will be registering in an area hospital for medical treatment can make you feel very nervous, and the wondering of how others have faired before you can make the situation even worse. A Colorado company has the solution. HealthGrades not only ranks hospitals across the United States, but also ranks the physicians that practice in them. HealthGrades believes hospitals with a five-star rating can lower your risk of death due to surgery by at least 70%.

Identification

• HealthGrades is a private ratings company that researches and ranks hospitals throughout the United States. HealthGrades publishes annual reports that list the top fifty hospitals in the nation, based on medical records. To be listed as a top hospital by HealthGrades, the institution must have proven superior among the other choices of hospitals in quality and care. HealthGrades also takes into consideration the reasons for hospitalizations, patient recovery levels, physician performance and mortality rate.

Time Frame

• HealthGrades has recently published its second annual report of the fifty top hospitals in the nation for 2009. The latest publishing is based on findings from over 5000 hospitals through researched claims data compiled over three years. These records, pulled between 2005 and 2007, are all from Medicare claim files that assist the Colorado based company in their analysis of mortality and surgical complications that have occurred within each hospital. A prior report was published in 2008, based on the same types of criteria over a longer period time ranging from 1999 to 2006, in which fifty top hospitals were also ranked superior.

Types

• HealthGrades rates its participating hospitals with a star system. The research has concluded that only one percent of all of the hospitals in the nation has been worthy of the superior five-star rating. Hospitals that provided the lowest of standards according to the HealthGrades research received only one star. Hospitals providing average, or care that is within an acceptable or adequate range, received approximately three stars. The HealthGrades star system is user friendly and easy to navigate.

Features

• The HealthGrades website offers consumers two ways to retrieve the data that has been compiled for the yearly report. The rating system is available free to the general public and individual hospitals can be searched by geographical location and medical conditions. The second option is a paid subscription option that offers a few extras along with the star rankings. For a monthly fee, HealthGrades will provide the registered user with certifications, physician affiliations, misconduct information and more.

Expert Insight

• If you will be hospitalized for necessary or elective surgery anytime within the near future, you may wish to consider logging onto the HealthGrades website for a list of hospitals near you in order to view their ranking. If you would prefer to play it safe, Mayo Clinic of Minnesota and Cedar Sinai of California are among the best, according to HealthGrade data research.