Scripps Hospitals Have Higher Survival Rates for Pneumonia, Heart Failure
Scripps Mercy, Scripps La Jolla are in top 5% of all hospitals
San Diego — Two Scripps hospitals have among the best survival rates in the country for pneumonia and one has one of the best survival rates for heart failure nationally, according to the latest report released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The report, released yesterday and available online at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, provides updated mortality data for Medicare patients treated for pneumonia, heart failure and acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which are some of the most common medical conditions.
The report shows that Scripps Mercy Hospital (San Diego and Chula Vista) has statistically better mortality rates than the national average for heart failure and pneumonia patients. Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla has statistically better rates for pneumonia patients. All other Scripps hospitals also had mortality rates that were better than the national average in all categories, but the rates were not statistically high enough to achieve the “better than” designation.
Scripps Mercy is one of 213 hospitals out of 4,773 nationally and 17 out of 347 in California to perform statistically better than the national average in heart failure mortality. This places Scripps Mercy in the top four percent nationally and top five percent in California in that category.
For pneumonia mortality, Scripps Mercy and Scripps La Jolla were in the top five percent (253 of 4,814) nationally and (18 of 352) statewide. They are the only hospitals in San Diego County to earn that distinction.
“At Scripps, we are committed to becoming the safest and highest quality health system in the San Diego region and today’s CMS report is a validation of that commitment,” said Scripps Chief Medical Officer Brent Eastman, MD. “We are especially proud that all Scripps hospitals have similarly high scores, because it is an illustration of the culture of high quality health care we are establishing throughout our organization.”
The data reflects patient discharges between July 2005 and June 2008. The national mortality rate for heart failure patients is 11.1 percent. Scripps Mercy’s rate is 8.5 percent. For pneumonia, the national rate is 11.5 percent. Scripps La Jolla’s rate is 7.9 percent and Scripps Mercy’s rate is 8.8 percent. All Scripps hospitals had heart failure mortality rates below 11.1 percent and pneumonia mortality rates below 11.5 percent.
The national mortality rate for AMI is 16.6 percent and all Scripps hospitals have AMI mortality rates between 14 and 14.8 percent.
Read more about health care quality at Scripps.
About Scripps
Contact: Don Stanziano
Phone: 858-678-7486
E-mail: stanziano.don@scrippshealth.org