All Hospitals Are Not Created Equal: Choosing the Wrong One Could Cost Patients Their Lives

We make decisions all day, every day. Most of them are taken care of in our sub-conscience, and we don't even have to think about them. But others decisions are more complicated: If you were to have an emergency for example, where would you go for your care? Why would you choose that hospital? What about when you're choosing for your critical patient? Several factors play into this decision, but too often people use the wrong information to make that choice. As a matter of fact, according to a recent New York Times article, going to the wrong hospital could cost patients their lives! That's right. Choose the wrong hospital for your patient's condition, and they're three times more likely to die. 

Now that I have your attention, let's talk about why that might be.

One thing hospitals seem to excel in is over-the-top marketing. The public sees the commercials about being a "top 100 hospital" or that they've received some "prestigious award," and they assume that those facilities were up against the best of the best hospitals in the nation. But is that true, or did hospitals have to pay to be included on the list of considered recipients? Much of the time, that is the case. 

Hospitals, of course, want patients to come to their facility ... that's business, and many people tend to forget that at the end of the day a hospital is exactly that -- a business. But according to the NYT article, just because a hospital might be good at one thing doesn't make them good at all things. Knowing where to go for a particular condition is much more complicated than picking the hospital with the biggest building, biggest billboard, or the shiniest entry way.

So, you know that as an EMS provider, choosing the wrong hospital for your patient's condition can cost them their life, but then which ones exactly do you need to avoid? Unfortunately there's no spreadsheet where you can simply match up the condition with the best and worst facilities for that ailment. The key to solving this problem and giving patients and EMS what they need to make the decision is transparency. At Pulsara, we bring transparency to the hospitals so they know exactly where their performance is lacking (and more importantly, WHY), and we share that info with EMS.

The result? First responders now know how well a given hospital performs for certain conditions, and they can make the most informed decision on where each case needs to go. When hospital performance is public knowledge, they tend to make improvement a priority. When it's private, it's all too easy to focus on other areas and market themselves however they wish. 

Okay, okay, I've given you lots of theoretical information, but I know what you're really wondering: When I'm making a decision on where to go for my health care, what do I do? My decisions are based on a few factors:

1. Is the hospital a high volume center? (Though keep in mind that according to the NYT article, this isn't a guarantee for good care either.) They are "generally" more successful. I'm all about playing the odds.
2. What is the culture of the hospital? Are they innovative and leading the way to the future? I've seen hospitals with big names who focus on what they did in the past. Those things have value, but I want to know what you're doing now to be better tomorrow.
3. This one is personal, but I want a hospital who is adding value to me before I ever enter their door. Are they educating the public on prevention and recognition? Are they providing access to free screenings at public events?  Hospitals have historically focused on making sick patients better. The hospital who really "gets" it will be preventing healthy people from getting sick.

What things do you consider when making a choice about where to get your own medical attention? What about when deciding where to take your emergent patients? Let us know in the comments!