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Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Maine's hospitals rate highly in care of heart patients
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Maine hospitals performed well in two separate assessments designed to measure quality of care for heart patients and overall levels of patient satisfaction, the Maine Hospital Association said Tuesday. In the areas of heart attack and heart failure treatments, the participating hospitals collectively scored better than 97 percent of the hospitals in a national database. In terms of patient satisfaction, Maine hospitals exceeded a national norm 175 times in 16 categories, while falling below the norm on four occasions. The association, which represents 38 hospitals throughout the state, said it voluntarily undertook the two quality improvement projects with the intention of releasing reliable and comparable hospital data to the public. The projects relied on outside vendors to compile and analyze the data. The clinical quality project focused on heart attacks and heart failure because heart disease is among the most frequent causes of hospitalization in Maine's community hospitals. The analysis of medical records, conducted by the Northeast Health Care Quality Foundation, measured whether hospitals dispensed appropriate drugs at specified times during the hospitalization. It also measured whether heart failure patients had a diagnostic test for heart function and whether heart attack patients who smoke were advised how to kick the habit. The patient satisfaction project, administered by Avatar International, surveyed discharged patients by mail over a three-month period. The patients were questioned on a range of topics, from pain management and nursing and physician care to admissions, billing and meals. "We're extremely pleased" with the results of the two projects, said Mary Mayhew, the association's vice president for governmental affairs and public relations. "The heart attack and heart failure project confirms the findings of a couple of recent studies done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services," she said. The projects represent part of a nationwide effort to standardize the assessment of health care quality and come up with a set of uniform measures, she said. The assessments were not designed primarily to compare one hospital against another, she said, but to provide meaningful information to consumers and to help hospitals learn from one another in order to improve their level of care.
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