How to Use this Guide
Compare Hospitals for Performance
On this page, you’ll find answers to the following questions:
How do I compare all Maryland hospitals to find the best hospitals for treating a medical condition?
How do I compare all Maryland hospitals for giving a recommended treatment (quality measure)?
How do I compare the size and offerings of two or more hospitals?
Select a question above or scroll down the page.
How do I compare all Maryland hospitals to find the best hospitals for treating a medical condition?
Under Find a Medical Condition, the guide provides a report that compares hospital performance for specific care topics: mothers who deliver babies, babies born, heart conditions, lung conditions, surgeries, and other conditions.
- From the main page of the Patient Guide, select Find a Medical Condition from the Hospital Guide menu.
A list of general care categories displays.
- Select the category of your interest.
A report displays types of medical conditions within this care topic and the total cases of each condition in all Maryland hospitals. For births, the report also shows the percentage of deliveries with that condition.
- Under the Look at all Maryland Hospitals column, select the icon next to the medical condition of your interest.
The Care of (medical condition) Category Detail report shows each hospital’s record on treating that condition.
To understand this report, use the following example.
Hospital A admitted 288 patients with chest pain (in the column "Number of cases"). The average patient with chest pain stayed at Hospital A for 1.4 days (in the column "Average Length of Stay). Hospital A has a low rate of readmitted patients (three stars in the "Readmission Rate" column).
Hospital A appears to provide quality care for patients with chest pain, because
- they see an average number of patients with this condition,
- they are able to treat the patient in less than the average in-patient treatment time, and
- they have an extremely low readmission rate.
When evaluating a hospital, review the length of stay comparisons. You may want to talk with your doctor when the length of stay at the hospital is significantly lower than or significantly higher than the average across all hospitals. An unusual length of stay combined with
- a medium-to-high readmission rate may indicate problems with patient care at that hospital.
- a low readmission rate may indicate that the hospital is effective in resolving a patient's problems, so the length of stay may not be a concern.
Your doctor should know the reason for the rating.
Finally, review the number of total cases treated as an indication of the hospital’s experience treating the condition.
If you can choose a hospital to treat your condition, review this report for all hospitals that accept your health insurance coverage to determine which one will best serve your needs.
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How do I compare all Maryland hospitals for giving a recommended treatment (quality measure)?
Under Find a Quality Measure, this guide provides a report on how often hospitals perform recommended treatments for heart attacks, heart failure, or pneumonia. This information is presented as a percentage. Hospitals should strive to perform quality measures close to 100 percent of the time, as long as a patient is able to receive them.
- On the main page of the Patient Guide, select Find a Quality Measure from the Hospital Guide menu.
Three medical conditions are listed: heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.
- Select one of the medical conditions.
A Quality of Care report for all Maryland hospitals displays. This report lists the following information:
- A bar chart icon: Clicking the icon displays a comparison chart.
- Measure: The recommended treatments for the condition.
- State Average: The average percentage of times that all state hospitals performed the recommended treatments.
- Highest Rate in Maryland: The highest percentage of times that a state hospital performed the recommended treatments.
- Next to a treatment, select the report icon under “Look at all Maryland Hospitals.”
A bar chart shows the percentage of times each Maryland hospital performed the recommended treatment and a comparison to the state average.
To understand this report, use the following example.
Consider Hospital B. Seventy-two percent (72%), of these patients were given aspirin when they arrived at the hospital for treatment. The state average for this treatment is 94% (as shown by the red line on the all hospital chart). So, Hospital B is well below the norm for offering this treatment to heart attack patients.
You also need to understand that not all patients can use aspirin therapy. These patient cases are not identified in the patient data used for this report. This may cause a lower percentage to be calculated for this treatment.
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How do I compare the size and offerings of two or more hospitals?
Under Comparison Reports, you can use this guide to create a report to compare the size and offerings of hospitals. Choose the hospitals and information you want to compare, and the guide will create a report that reflects the options you specify.
- From the main page of the Patient Guide, select Comparison Reports from the Hospital Guide menu.
- To compare specific hospitals, in the first box “Option 1 – Search by hospital name,” click the arrow button to scroll though the list. Holding the CTRL key, left-click on the hospitals you want to select.
Or,
- To compare all hospitals in a county, go to “Option 2 – Search by Maryland county name(s),” then click the up or down arrow to scroll through the list of counties. Click on the county you want to select.
Or,
- To compare all hospitals near a zip code, go to “Option 3 – Search by Maryland zip code,” then type a state zip code into the Zip Code text box. You also can choose how wide the search should be by selecting a distance in the “Maximum Distance (miles)” box. If you don’t select a distance, the results will be within five miles of the zip code.
Or,
- To compare hospitals by county using a map, go to “Option 4 – Search by Maryland county map.” Click on the map to select a county. The counties you choose display in the Selected Counties box.
- Select the Next button.
A form displays to allow you to select characteristics and services that you want to compare.
- Select the check boxes next to the characteristics and services of your interests.
- Select the Next button.
A Facility Comparison Report lists the hospitals in a table containing the characteristics and services you requested.
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