June 04, 2010 01:55am EST 

A medical report on Tuesday by ratings company HealthGrades Inc. showed that the wide gap in quality among America’s best hospitals and the average non-federal U.S. hospital, corresponded with a large difference, more than 50%, in the rate of patient deaths.
According to their report, patients have a 51.53% lower risk of dying in America’s best hospitals when compared to  U.S. hospitals in general.
Based on an evaluation of hospital mortality related to 17 procedures and diagnoses at 5,000 non-federal U.S. hospitals, Healthgrades Inc. examined 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from the years 2006 through 2008.
Although, hospital mortality rates in general have dropped over the past few years, with an improvement of 10.99% from 2006 through 2008, the HealthGrade report found that the “quality chasm” between the best hospital and other hospitals “has persisted for the last decade.”
According to Dr. Rick May, an author of the study, “The fact is, patients are twice as likely to die at low-rated hospitals than at the best hospitals for the same diagnoses and procedures.” “With Washington focused on rewarding high-quality hospitals and empowering patients to make more informed healthe care choices, this information comes at a turning point in the healthcare debate.”
The “HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study” also found these interesting statistics:
- If all hospitals performed at the level of a five-star rated hospital across 17 procedures and diagnoses studied for mortality rates, 224,537 lives of Medicare patients could potentially have been saved from 2006 through 2008.
- About 57 percent (127,488) of the potentially preventable hospital deaths were associated with four diagnoses: sepsis (44,622); pneumonia (29,251); heart failure (26,374) and respiratory failure (27,241).
- Across all procedures studied, there was 61.22 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more in-hospital complications in a five-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.
- For three years, Ohio and Florida consistently have had the greatest percentage of hospitals in the top 15 percent for risk-adjusted mortality rates.
- A hospital that received the Stroke Certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations have an 8 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate than hospitals that have not received this certification.