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Analysis by Medicare Rates Hospital Readmission and Deaths

A recent analysis by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that too many people die needlessly at U.S. hospitals. 

According to the article that was published in USA Today, the analysis examined death rates for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia at more than 4,600 hospitals across the United States.
 
At 3.4% of hospitals, patients with heart failure died at rates slightly higher than the national average, and 1.2% of hospitals were higher when it came to heart attack.  With pneumonia, 5.9% of hospitals had death rates significantly higher than the national average.

The researchers also found that one of every four heart failure patients and approximately one in five heart attack and pneumonia patients land back in the hospital within 30 days.

The findings were based on more than 1 million deaths and readmissions among Medicare patients from 2005 to 2008. 

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