Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Aurora? High Costs? You're KIDDING!!

Actually, no we are not kidding:

The study, done by the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, is the first to provide information on specific hospitals, including data on the number of days chronically ill patients are likely to spend in an intensive care unit and the number of physician visits they will have in the last two years.

For example, at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center, the area's largest hospital, a chronically ill patient on average will have 40% more physician visits and spend 40% more days in the hospital during the last two years of his or her life than the state average.

The study found that the additional services, such as more days in the hospital or physician visits, did not result in better quality care.

...but DID add to Aurora's income stream.

1 comment:

James Wigderson said...

I thought we were supposed to complain when the hospital kicks us out the door too soon. I get so confused sometimes.