Choosing a Quality Hospital

The Institute of Medicine estimates that 98,000 deaths per year are the results of medical mistakes. Thus, selecting the best hospital program is critical. While researching various hospitals, it is important to ask the right questions.

1. Research a hospital’s history and status. Request information from the hospital itself—its procedure/surgery results and how they are measured; mortality and complication rates; number of nurses on staff; treatment options; financial options; referral networks—as well as do research on the internet.

2. Ask a recommendation. Talk to your primary care physician about what hospital he or she would choose and why. Also, request recommendations from friends, family or colleagues.

3. Utilize national accreditation agencies. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is the national authority for surveying hospitals. It decides a hospital’s accreditation status based on whether it meets certain health and safety requirements. There are seven different levels of accreditation. If the hospital you are considering is not accredited, it is important to know why.

4. Observe a hospital, and trust your own impressions. Visit the hospital you are considering, look around and ask patients and staff how they feel about it. Is the facility clean? Do waiting rooms and patient care rooms look comfortable and well maintained? Is the staff courteous and helpful? Find out how patient complaints are handled by the hospital.

5. Ask about treatment options. There may be more than one way to treat your medical condition. If your physician can diagnose and treat your condition in several ways, the hospital should be equipped for all these possible treatment options. Ask your physician to list the full range of options for diagnosing and treating your condition and compare these to the options offered by the hospital under consideration.

6. Ask about hospital charges. Financial issues can be very confusing. Review them carefully with your benefits manager, review your policy and speak with someone in the hospital business office to make sure you have your facts straight.

7. Looking into nursing staff. Staff-to-patient ratio affects care. The number of nurses on staff in a hospital, in relation to number of patients or other hospital staff, is often a measure of quality that directly affects patient care. One nurse can typically care for three to six patients, except in intensive care units where the ratio is more likely to be one nurse for every one or two patients.

8. Check the hospital’s physician and health plan affiliation. Determine if your physician and/or health plan are affiliated with the hospital. Physicians typically are affiliated with several hospitals, meaning they have met those hospitals’ requirements and are allowed to treat patients in those facilities.

Information provided by healthgrades.com, an online medical evaluation site.

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