Medicare’s Hospital Compare


The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide an online resource intended to help you make informed choices about your health care.  The resource, called Hospital Compare, offers a variety of specific information in order to give you a complete picture of hospitals throughout the country. 

The Hospital Compare site allows you to compare hospitals in a number of different ways.  For instance, it will enable you to see, using survey information, how patients feel about their hospital experiences.  Some topics include pain management, overall quality of care, and staff communication with patients. 

The site also lets you look at how mortality rates for different conditions compare with the national death rates for these same conditions, and how often hospitals treat recommended heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgery.  

You can compare hospitals in terms of how many people with Medicare have had various treatments.  You can even see what Medicare usually pays a hospital when it performs certain procedures. 

In addition, you may use the Hospital Compare site to figure out which hospitals are accredited.  The Hospital Compare site will also provide information on your rights as a patient and how to report a quality complaint.   It can direct to you other relevant publications or websites.

By using the Hospital Compare resource, you will be able to make an educated decision regarding which hospitals will likely offer you the highest quality of care.  You can find this valuable tool at www.medicare.gov/hospital.


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