We believe CareChex provides the most statistically accurate ratings of hospital quality.  Other rating services are one-dimensional, i.e. they analyze one factor in hospital care.  This can lead to faulty conclusions about a hospital’s overall quality of care.  For example, a hospital with strong ratings for its low mortality rates may have high complication rates.

CareChex, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive evaluation of the three major components of medical quality – the process of care, outcomes of care and patient satisfaction.

Processes of care are the actual procedures hospitals use to treat patients for specific medical problems.  Evidence has proven that some processes are more effective than others.  For example, CareChex looks at the percentage of heart attack patients who are given aspirin when they arrive at the hospital.  Aspirin is an important initial treatment because it can help keep blood clots from forming and dissolve blood clots that can cause heart attacks.

CareChex also does a statistical analysis of the outcomes of a hospital’s care.  Is the overall mortality rate what you would expect for the types of patients that hospital treats?  Is the rate of medical complications average or lower than expected?
 
The final element of the CareChex evaluation is an analysis of patient satisfaction.  Do patients feel the doctors and nurses communicate appropriately?  Is the staff responsive to patient requests and needs?

The information for the CareChex analysis comes from publicly available data bases and includes virtually all general, acute-care, non-federal U.S. hospitals. 

You can see all the CareChex ratings at www.carechex.com.

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