TOLEDO, Ohio -
Fifteen-hundred hospital patients die a month because of surgical mistakes, infections and other medical harm according to a 2010 government report. How safe is your hospital?
For the first time, Consumer Reports Magazine investigated hospital safety and the results may surprise you.
The report does not assess how successful hospitals are at treating medical conditions. So this shouldn't be the only factor you use in choosing medical care, but it does point out that many of our local hospitals have room for improvement.
This is the first time Consumer Reports has ranked US hospitals for overall safety. Out of a 100 point scale ---here's how our local hospitals scored:
Flower Hospital 65
Toledo Hospital 64
Mercy Saint V's 58
Saint Luke's 54
UTMC 28
The national average score is 49. UTMC scored last out all the Ohio hospitals.
Dr. Jeffery Gold of UTMC says there's a reason, "It turned out that those hospitals that take care of the sickest patients ended up on the lowest part of the scale."
He believes the report is flawed, pointing out that UTMC was recently ranked #1 with US News and World Report for its higher degree of healing.
The Cleveland Clinic which is known for its quality of care was ranked low as well and Gold says he knows why.
"They reported cardiac infections after cardiac surgery, unfortunately as a cardiac surgeon, I can tell you a small number of patients do become infected after cardiac surgery but many of the hospitals don't do cardiac surgery, so they would report an infection rate of zero zero."
Consumer Reports used six categories to give the hospitals a safety score.
Infections, communications about safety issues, re-admissions, how often CT scans are ordered, complications and mortality.
We talked with local residents to get their reaction to the report.
Melissa Mock is not surprised that flower ranked high. "Everything heals and they are always friendly and supportive to you."
While William Dusseau says he knows why UTMC ranked low. "They have their students draw blood and it takes them a two or three times to get it right."
No hospital received a perfect score and hospital leaders say there's always room for improvement.
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