Healthgrades has released its 2014 Hospital Quality Outcomes report and included predictions for 2014. The report notes that hospitals still differ widely on patient outcomes even for the same procedure. Until hospitals have to meet a minimum standard of care anywhere, they will have to work to improve quality and reduce costs somehow. Meanwhile, with no guarantee of a standard, patients will have to be make wiser decisions before they elect to enter a hospital. Patients have a right to know how their local hospitals are doing, but that information can be difficult to find. While patients agree on this almost unanimously, most patients choose a hospital over its location (58%) or the amount of the co-pay (45%) rather than the past success of patient outcomes (30%).
Get report here: Healthgrades 2014 American Hospital Report