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National Quality Scorecard
For over 10 years, medical researchers have known that the quality of care given to patients differs widely from hospital to hospital. It turns out that how big or prestigious the hospital is does not correlate to how well it provides quality. The New England Journal of Medicine (one of the most important medical journals in our country) reported that patients receive the best quality care only 55 percent of the time. We know from medical research that if certain medications, treatments, diagnostic tests or education is given, a person's chance of dying is decreased, complications are less and quality of life is improved. These steps in taking care of people are called quality indicators.
Because of these differences in quality of patient care, the government through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided a Web site to inform you, the consumer, what each hospital's quality indicators are. Along with the government and the American Hospital Association, we believe that hospitals should be accountable to the communities they serve. It has been shown that when hospitals release their quality data and become accountable, it gives them an incentive to improve their quality of care, benefiting the community. And in turn, an informed, educated consumer can make choices as to where they have their healthcare delivered based on the quality scores.
DeKalb Memorial Hospital and its medical staff were one of the first hospitals in the country to release their quality scores to the government and community. DeKalb Memorial Hospital remains one of the top hospitals in the state of Indiana and in the country, consistently providing excellent quality care for the most common illnesses leading to hospitalization.
Good things do come in small packages. We are not a large hospital and we do not do all things, but what we do, we do well. But you don't have to take our word for it — click on the links to compare our hospital with any other hospital. You will feel assured that DeKalb Memorial Hospital means, and is, quality.
Note: Should the scores on the Quality Indicators be 100 percent all the time? This is the goal strived for and many times achieved. However, at times it is important not to be 100 percent. For instance, if a person is allergic to the recommended antibiotic, one should not be given it. Another example is after discussing benefits, risks, and alternatives with the patient, the patient decides not to receive the recommended medicine or treatment. These examples would be reflected as a score lower than 100 percent.
Our Pneumonia Scores
Our Heart Failure Scores
Our Heart Attack Scores
Our Surgical Infection Scores
Other Hospital Scores
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