Kansas' Heart Care Death Rate Like U.S.' S: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Offers th

Jun 22, 03:02 AM

Current Headlines: By Karen Shideler, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Jun. 22--Heart attack and heart failure patients in Wichita hospitals have death rates in line with national rates, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday.

The death rates are a new part of the online Hospital Compare tool offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The centers also released an update on Medicare payments to hospitals, meant to give consumers a look at what is paid for each procedure.

Local hospital officials say the tools can be helpful but should be only one consideration in making decisions.

In a news conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt called the reports "a glimpse of the future" in which consumers will be able to evaluate a number of measures as they compare health care services.

But the reports released Thursday don't offer much to help Kansans make decisions.

The death rate reports divide hospitals into three categories: better than the U.S. national rate, worse than the national rate, and no different than the national rate.

The heart failure mortality report includes 4,807 hospitals nationwide. Only 38 are rated as better than the national rate, and only 35 are worse. That leaves 4,734 hospitals, including 132 in Kansas that are part of the report, in the "no different than" category.

For heart attack mortality, 17 hospitals of 4,477 nationwide are better, seven are worse and 4,453, including 114 in Kansas, are "no different."

Both reports include Wichita's Via Christi Regional Medical Center, Wesley Medical Center, Kansas Heart Hospital and Galichia Heart Hospital.

Physician Hewitt Goodpasture, vice president for clinical quality and patient safety at Via Christi, and Colin Parry, director of quality and infection control at Wesley, said the information is part of a federal effort to make health care information more accessible for consumers.

Both said the mortality rates -- which are based on the number of patients who died within 30 days of being admitted -- should be considered as one part of making health care decisions.

"It's a good indicator, but it has to be used as an indicator only, along with a whole lot of other information," Parry said.

Goodpasture noted that the data is almost a year old -- it covers the period between July 2005 and June 2006 -- and said, "It's never going to replace having those discussions" with a doctor or other health care professional.

The cost report shows the number and price range for the 31 most common elective inpatient procedures and for some additional procedures.

The result is spreadsheet files so huge that they come with a warning: "Printing them is not recommended." They're also so large that they're probably not of much use to most people.

In the news conference, Leavitt and others promised that the information released Thursday is just the beginning. Similar reports should be available next year on pneumonia, and in future years on surgical outcomes, they said.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:kshideler@wichitaeagle.com].

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