"Pennsylvania is definitely at the forefront of using hospital discharge data to help improve quality of care and help patients make decisions about where to get their care," said Anne Elixhauser, senior research scientist at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
And as people are asked by their employers and health insurers to take a greater role in assessing the cost and quality of their own care, the study gives Pennsylvanians new information to understand their options. While the report does not rank hospitals and surgeons from best to worst, it does list whether the complications associated with each were either lower than expected, the same as expected, or higher than expected.
"The health-care system needs to function more like a regular market, where consumers can get useful information about the quality and cost of the products being delivered," said Suzanne Delbanco, head of the Leapfrog Group, a group seeking quality and cost improvements in the nation's health system. "This report helps create the kind of transparency that allows patients to act like true consumers."
Analysis by the cost containment council shows reducing complications can save money.
The council found Philadelphia-area patients spent more than 1,246 extra days in hospitals and incurred an additional $6.9 million in charges because of deep joint infections and medical device failures after these surgeries. Those same problems led to 6,000 extra days in hospitals and added $30 million to hospital bills statewide.
