RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Virginia Health Information (VHI) publishes hospital mortality information on Cardiac Care. The online information allows visitors to search http://www.vhi.org/ for hospitals in their areas and compare and contrast their performance. The report includes information on all hospitals providing Cardiac Care.
Michael Lundberg, VHI’s Executive Director notes, “If you need care for heart disease, VHI’s information comparing hospitals and treatment options can help you plan for your care and be more informed when talking with your family and physician.”
Three Cardiac Care categories allow readers to compare hospitals by different types of cardiac services. The largest category is Medical Cardiology and includes conditions such as angina, cardiac arrest, heart failure and hypertension. Procedures in the Invasive Cardiology category include cardiac pacemaker, cardiac catheterization, balloon angioplasty and other surgical procedures. The Open Heart Surgery category is primarily Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) and cardiac valve procedures. Information on how many cases each hospital cared for in 2002 and 2003 is included along with the expected mortality rate and whether the rate is less than expected, as expected, or more than expected.
Because some patients are sicker than others VHI “levels the playing field” by taking into account patients with multiple conditions that can affect whether patients might live or die during care. Dr. Ramesh K. Shukla, professor, Williamson Institute, Department of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University, directed the scientific research in developing a reliable and valid methodology for fair comparison of hospitals’ performance and mortality outcomes. Hospitals were also given the opportunity to review and comment on the report before it was published.
Treatment of heart disease is second only to childbirth as the leading cause of hospital admission. VHI has included links to detailed information on heart disease and treatment options from the American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic and other respected sources from around the country. Additional Cardiac Care reports detail information by age, gender and racial categories.
In addition to Cardiac Care information, http://www.vhi.org/ includes reports and consumer guides on health insurance, hospitals, HMOs, long-term care, physicians and other health information for consumers and businesses. VHI is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing health information to consumers, businesses, health policymakers and others.
CONTACT: Michael T. Lundberg, Executive Director
Toll Free: 1-877-VHI-INFO or E-mail: Michael@vhi.org
Virginia Health Information
CONTACT: Michael T. Lundberg, Executive Director of Virginia HealthInformation, +1-877-VHI-INFO, Michael@vhi.org
Web site: http://www.vhi.org/