Business & Tech

How Does Your Doctor, Hospital Compare to Others?

By using the searchable database on the HealthGrades.com website, Lawrence Township residents can learn important information about their doctors and hospitals.

Are you trying to decide which doctor to go to and want some more information to help make up your mind? Or do you want to know what other patients think of the doctor you are currently seeing? And what about hospitals? What to know how the local medical centers rate when compared to others, both in the area and across the country?

Lawrence Township residents seeking answers to these and similar questions can fire up their computers and make use of the searchable database on the HealthGrades.com website.

Billing itself as “America's most trusted, independent source of physician information and hospital quality outcomes,” HealthGrades.com's database features a variety of useful information about local physicians and hospitals.

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Using the database you can learn about your doctor’s educational background, what awards and recognitions he or she has received, if he or she has been involved in a malpractice lawsuit in the last five years, and how other patients rate the doctor in a several areas.

Patient ratings are based on responses to questions like, “Do you trust your physician to make decisions/recommendations that are in your best interest?” and “Does the physician listen to you and answer your questions.” Questions also cover the doctor’s office environment, ease of scheduling appointments and wait time.

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With regard to hospitals, HealthGrades.com offers information about patient safety and the quality of services offered by each individual medical center in a number of fields, such as the nfrequency of patients acquiring bed sores at that hospital to how heart attack patients fair at that facility in comparison to national averages.  

For example, last month HealthGrades.com awarded Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton a 2011 Emergency Medicine Excellence Award, ranking the medical center in Hamilton Township in the top 5 percent of hospitals in the nation for emergency medicine.

The ranking was part of a HealthGrades.com study that involved the analysis of more than seven million Medicare patient records from 2007 to 2009, with a focus on 12 of the most common and life-threatening medical emergencies among Medicare patients, such as heart attack, stroke, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD).

“In the case of a medical emergency, patients need to get to the closest emergency room as fast as possible. No exceptions,” Dr. Rick May, study co-author and HealthGrades.com vice president of clinical quality services, said in a news release. “That said, we encourage patients to prepare in advance by identifying top-performing hospitals close to home. Our research shows that it’s not just the care you receive the moment you arrive that makes the difference between life and death, but the hospital’s ability to continue to provide you with the right care at the right time if you need to be admitted.”

 “RWJ Hamilton is committed to providing our community with excellent service and exceptional care. It is the foundation of the work we do every day,” Joyce Schwarz, vice president for quality/professional services at RWJ Hamilton, said after the study was released “We have invested in several disease areas such as stroke, heart failure, sepsis (severe infection) and diabetes, and we are expanding our emergency capabilities for pediatrics, as well as developing a pediatric program of excellence. As exemplified by this award, we measure ourselves against best practices on a national level. We will continue to pursue exceptional practice as we move forward.” 

RWJ Hamilton also received a 2011 Joint Replacement Excellence Award and a 2011 Stroke Care Excellence Award from HealthGrades.com.

Other local hospitals to be recognized by HealthGrade.com were Capital Health System’s Mercer hospital in Trenton, which also received a 2011 Stroke Care Excellence Award, and University Medical Center at Princeton, which received a 2010/2011 Maternity Care Excellence Award.

The HealthGrades.com “Emergency Medicine in American Hospitals” study identified the following cities as being in the “Top 10” for emergency medicine, based on overall mortality rate for patients admitted through the emergency department.

  1. Cincinnati, Ohio
  2. Phoenix, Ariz.
  3. Milwaukee, Wis.
  4. Dayton, Ohio
  5. Cleveland, Ohio
  6. W. Palm Beach, Fla.
  7. Tucson, Ariz.
  8. Baltimore, Md.
  9. Houston, Texas
  10. Detroit, Mich.

Note: “To be included in the analysis, hospitals must have met minimum thresholds in terms of patient volumes, quality ratings, and the range of services provided. HealthGrades’ hospital ratings are independently created; no hospital can opt-in or opt-out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.”


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