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The recent release of hospital mortality statistics by the Illinois Department of Public Health is causing a stir among some medical facilities who say risk factors, such as age and previous medical conditions, are not always taken into account.
While Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights gets high marks in overall heart attack and heart failure care, the IDPH data shows the facility has a higher mortality rate for patients with congestive heart failure when compared with other hospitals in Illinois.
From July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, the IDPH reported that nine out of 105 patients, or 8.57 percent, with congestive heart failure died at GlenOaks.
By comparison, 17 out of 495 patients, or 3.43 percent, with congestive heart failure died at Central DuPage Hospital, and 22 out 567 patients, or 3.88 percent, died at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. The state average is 3.88 percent.
The IDPH mortality data is part of a report card of statistics for all hospitals in the state. IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care Web site could help patients decide which hospital offers the best medical service in a particular area.
“It can be beneficial in choosing which hospital for a procedure to be done,” she said.
Arnold said the data also help hospital administrators study where the hospital could improve.
“We will continue to add other data elements,” she said.
Dr. Richard Carroll, chief medical officer at Adventist GlenOaks Hospital and a board-certified cardiologist, said often data is not adjusted to account for severity.
“If I have a 96-year-old woman who comes in with kidney disease, lung disease and heart disease and has terminal cancer and comes into my hospital with heart failure, she is more likely to die than a 56-year-old man without the rest of it but has heart failure,” Carroll said. “The severity adjustment allows us to try and compare the 96-year-old lady with the 56-year-old guy.”
Of the patients who died at GlenOaks, Carroll said many were nursing home patients who also had other ailments, such as heart and kidney diseases.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, GlenOaks’ death rate for heart failure patients from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2008, is 10.8 percent, compared to the national rate of 11.1 percent.
Carroll said the historical data needs to be considered.
“You don’t want to take one snapshot in time over a year,” he said. “You want to get the overall success rate for a particular hospital.”
The recent release of hospital mortality statistics by the Illinois Department of Public Health is causing a stir among some medical facilities who say risk factors, such as age and previous medical conditions, are not always taken into account.
While Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights gets high marks in overall heart attack and heart failure care, the IDPH data shows the facility has a higher mortality rate for patients with congestive heart failure when compared with other hospitals in Illinois.
From July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, the IDPH reported that nine out of 105 patients, or 8.57 percent, with congestive heart failure died at GlenOaks.
By comparison, 17 out of 495 patients, or 3.43 percent, with congestive heart failure died at Central DuPage Hospital, and 22 out 567 patients, or 3.88 percent, died at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. The state average is 3.88 percent.
The IDPH mortality data is part of a report card of statistics for all hospitals in the state. IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care Web site could help patients decide which hospital offers the best medical service in a particular area.
“It can be beneficial in choosing which hospital for a procedure to be done,” she said.
Arnold said the data also help hospital administrators study where the hospital could improve.
“We will continue to add other data elements,” she said.
Dr. Richard Carroll, chief medical officer at Adventist GlenOaks Hospital and a board-certified cardiologist, said often data is not adjusted to account for severity.
“If I have a 96-year-old woman who comes in with kidney disease, lung disease and heart disease and has terminal cancer and comes into my hospital with heart failure, she is more likely to die than a 56-year-old man without the rest of it but has heart failure,” Carroll said. “The severity adjustment allows us to try and compare the 96-year-old lady with the 56-year-old guy.”
Of the patients who died at GlenOaks, Carroll said many were nursing home patients who also had other ailments, such as heart and kidney diseases.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, GlenOaks’ death rate for heart failure patients from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2008, is 10.8 percent, compared to the national rate of 11.1 percent.
Carroll said the historical data needs to be considered.
“You don’t want to take one snapshot in time over a year,” he said. “You want to get the overall success rate for a particular hospital.”
But Arnold said the data, which was assembled by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, accounted for the differences in risk among specific patients.
“We do understand that there are concerns with the data and what is taken into account, but the data does go through a risk adjustment,” she said.
As for GlenOaks’ rating in overall heart attack care — a score which tells how many heart attack patients received all of the appropriate care they qualified for — the hospital received a 97.8 percent, compared to the state’s 92.72 percent.
Carroll attributes the high marks to the hospital’s aggressive cardiac program.
Having opened last year, Adventist GlenOaks’ Heart and Vascular Institute allows patients with life-threatening heart blockages or those who need pacemakers or implantable defibrillators to be treated closer to home.
Also in 2009, GlenOaks was designated as an accredited chest pain center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers, which hospital officials said is a seal of approval showing that patients can receive the most advanced care locally instead of traveling outside of their community.
