#Middlebury #SeniorNewsLine
Just because your local hospital received a good rating in the past doesn’t mean the rating has stayed the same. Things change, for good and for bad. If you’re about to have surgery or need to pick out a new medical facility, check online sites to see what the latest scores are for hospitals near you.
Leapfrog Group is one of the organizations that collects data and reports hospital performance through its Hospital Safety Grade. Go online to www.leapfroggroup.org and look for Compare Hospitals. Put in your city and state and search within 10 to 200 miles from you.
The ratings are updated twice a year to reflect changes in the level of care. Look for information under inpatient care, medication safety, injections, injuries and more.
If, for example, your hospital has been dinged two years in a row for post-surgical infection rates, there’s a problem there that hasn’t gone away. If your hospital scores low in using bar codes to dispense medication (scanning the patient wrist band before giving medication), you’ll know that’s something to keep an eye on, especially if you’re asleep and unaware of being given medication. If your hospital has a zero rate of post-surgical infections, that’s something else you need to know.
Be sure to click the blue icon to read more about the rating for each item. In some cases a low number of bars is good, in others it indicates a problem.
What about your doctor, especially if you’re about to see a new one? First ask people you know for recommendations or comments. Then go online to HealthGrades (www.healthgrades.com) to get information. Scroll down to read comments written by other patients. Keep in mind, however, that as with everything else online, you really don’t know who has written those reviews.
(c) 2018 King Features Synd. Inc.
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