How to Choose a Hospital by Ranking Based on Quality of Care

As a patient, it's important to look to quality reporting sources for solid, up-to-date and accurate information. Hospital rankings must be entirely objective, so avoid rankings produced internally by a hospital. Instead, favor quality reporting companies that are available to the public from third-party sources. When searching for a hospital with high scores in qualify care, do your homework and be certain to speak with a physician at the hospital before making a decision.

Instructions

• 1

  Find HealthInsight rankings by state and by condition. HealthInsight measures hospitals' quality of care using 25 national Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services measures and satisfaction ratings from inpatients. Alternatively, find HealthGrade rankings by state and by condition. HealthGrade measures hospitals' quality of care using "claims data," which not all experts believe is an adequate way to make a determination on quality of care. Either option is an effective starting point to finding highly ranked hospitals.

• 2

  Favor rankings based on patient outcomes data, such as patient safety, mortality rates as well as efficiency and equity of care. U.S.News & World Report releases an annual "Best Hospitals" issue. U.S.News & World Report rankings are based on three equally weighted elements: reputation, mortality rate and care-related factors.

• 3

  Narrow your search to the top five hospitals in the nation. Favor hospitals that repeatedly rank in the top five, preferably one to three years in a row.

• 4

  Select a hospital that receives a perfect score in the category "equity of care." Equity of care refers to the way in which patients from different gender, race and socioeconomic status receive the same quality of treatment and have the same outcomes.

• 5

  Look at the bigger picture. A hospital that receives a top score in heart surgery, for example, is staffed and proven to treat the full continuum of heart disease care, including preliminary to advanced stages such as surgery.