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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 6, 2005 Medford medical centers outperform most hospitals By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune If you go to a Medford hospital with a heart attack, you’re almost certain to get an aspirin. It’s not that Southern Oregon doctors and nurses are lazy. Aspirin is good medicine for a heart attack. It diminishes the blood’s ability to clot, and chewing one can reduce the severity of a heart attack by decreasing the likelihood of blood clotting inside the heart muscle. Rogue Valley Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical Center did better on average than other Oregon hospitals at delivering basic treatments such as aspirin, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. RVMC and Providence Medford also outperformed most hospitals across the United States in providing simple, effective treatments for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. "The message to local folks is that they’re getting really good-quality care in this valley," said Dr. Eugene Ogrod, chief medical officer at Providence Medford Medical Center. Researchers looked at data from 3,558 hospitals to see whether they routinely delivered basic treatments that are known to work. In general the researchers learned that the best performance tended to occur in academic hospitals, nonprofit hospitals and hospitals in the Northeast or Midwest. Advertisement Their conclusions, based on patient records from the first six months of 2004, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 21. Among all the hospitals in the nationwide study, aspirin was given to 91 percent of heart-attack patients. All Oregon hospitals combined gave aspirin to 96 percent of their heart-attack patients. Medford hospitals did better yet. At RVMC, 98 percent of heart-attack patients were given aspirin; at Providence Medford, the figure was 100 percent. The study compared hospitals on 17 common care measures, such as giving drugs known as "beta-blockers" for heart attack and heart failure. Beta-blockers decrease blood pressure and relieve stress on the heart by slowing heart rate and reducing the heart muscle’s contracting strength when it pumps. Providence gave beta-blockers to 94 percent of heart-attack patients, and RVMC gave them to 91 percent. Those numbers compare favorably with the national average of 83 percent and the Oregon average of 88 percent, said Dr. Kent Dauterman, director of cardiology at RVMC. Dauterman said the local hospitals’ success can be traced to developing a "systems" approach to care, where doctors, nurses and hospital staff have a checklist of simple reminders to follow. Nurses routinely study patient records to look for ways to improve care. "It’s not flashy," he said. "It’s just a way of ensuring that people get the type of care they need." Dauterman said it would be difficult to say why 2 percent of RVMC patients did not receive aspirin without looking at their records. Aspirin may not always be appropriate for patients with other medical conditions, such as stomach ulcers. "The bottom line is that I’m pleased with the results," he said. Hospitals had to treat at least 25 patients in any of the categories to be evaluated. Data was not available for Ashland Community Hospital because it did not treat enough patients in some categories. Ashland hospital also does not offer some of the services that were evaluated in other categories. Data was not available for Providence Medford in some cardiac-care categories because RVMC provides the largest share of the region’s cardiac care. The data became available after Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which gave hospitals financial incentives for reporting performance data. Dauterman said the medical community nationwide has become much more interested in the past few years at tracking performance. "Everyone wants to think they’re providing excellent care," he said. Providence’s Ogrod said comparative data can spur hospitals to improve because "no one wants to let their hospital look bad." Studies may be relatively less useful for patients, however, because in an emergency they don’t have time to choose the "best" hospital for their ailment. "You end up where the ambulance takes you," he said, "or where your doctor is on the staff." Dauterman said there are likely to be more comparative studies of hospital performance as pressure mounts to provide quality care while holding down costs. "The American public wants to know, and rightly so, how their local hospitals are doing," he said. Hospitals’ performance data can be viewed online at: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/ Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492 or e- Medford medical centers outperform most hospitals ">[email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztechmedia Website Hosting Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy online casino Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Reservationstogo Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Natto Kinase Nattokinase Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Advertisement s