TREASURE COAST — Two Treasure Coast hospitals have made a national list of poorly performing health facilities near travel hot spots.

USA Today included Indian River and St. Lucie medical centers on a list of hospitals with greater-than-average mortality rates near vacation spots. The national newspaper used statistics from Hospital Compare, a government-run Web site, to look at the mortality rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia and singled out hospitals whose rates were worse than the national average.

Heart failure put Indian River Medical Center on USA Today’s list. St. Lucie Medical Center made the list with higher-than-average rates for heart failure and heart attack.

Hospital Compare does not use the most up-to-date statistics — Medicare officials said the lag-time is about two years — so officials with both St. Lucie and Indian River medical centers said the Web site isn’t an accurate reflection of care at the hospitals today. Also, Indian River Medical Centers spokeswoman Betsy Whisman said the hospital’s mortality rate was inflated by taking in hospice patients after the 2004 hurricanes.

Hospital Compare, which is a service of Medicare, isn’t the only place online to check up on your health-care provider. A variety of Web sites, including one run by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, offer rates and rankings on a variety of procedures and protocols.

Most of the sites use Medicare data to make fair comparisons, however, Treasure Coast health officials have stressed the limitations of the Web sites, saying the ratings often don’t portray a clear picture of overall care at a hospital.

COMPARISON SITES

Here are some places to start checking up on your hospital:

Florida Health Finder: www.floridahealthfinder.gov; a service of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration

Hospital Compare: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov; a service of Medicare

Web MD: www.webmd.com; a commercial site that uses Medicare data

Why Not The Best: www.whynotthebest.org; a private site using Medicare and Medicaid data and created by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation

Health Grades: www.healthgrades.com; a commercial site by a professional hospital ratings firm based in Colorado

Hillary Copsey

Tags: best, Florida, Health, hospital, hurricanes, inflatable, medical, national, newspaper, statistics, travel, vacation, web

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under Health, Indian River County, St. Lucie County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.