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How does your hospital rank? You'll probably never know

Most patients don't plan on going to the hospital or have a long time to consider which hospital to go to during an emergency situation. In other cases, a person's health insurance dictates which hospital they can go to. Hospitals are supposed to safely care for patients and hopefully result in the patient leaving healthier than when they arrived. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.

Hospital safety is an issue that isn't often discussed or even considered by patients and their doctors. This is unfortunate and puts patients at risk for being harmed during their hospital stay. Part of the reason hospital safety isn't discussed is because data on hospital safety is not available to the public.

Patients should be able to see hospital safety records to help them decide where to receive care. Accessing hospital safety records shouldn't be that difficult either. Hospitals have been tracking errors for over a decade, and the government began collecting data on hospital quality in 2003. 

In addition to hospitals tracking their own errors, other organizations have been collecting this information as well. The public should be aware of the different ways to review hospital safety data before they have a procedure in the hospital. 

It is a step in the right direction that more organizations are reporting hospital safety ratings and errors. However, many states do not provide enough information to the public. Patients should be able to find out a hospital's infection rate or surgical errors but this information is not always available for certain hospitals or even in entire states. 

Not knowing hospital safety ratings is a serious issue. Patients deserve to know the risks of having a certain procedure done and this should include knowing about a hospital's individual safety ratings like the likelihood of getting an infection or being a victim of a surgical or medication error. 

Hopefully more organizations, including federal agencies, will improve their reporting on hospital safety so patients are more informed before going to the hospital. 

Source: The New York Times, "To Make Hospitals Less Deadly, a Dose of Data," Tina Rosenberg, Dec. 4, 2013

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