Medical Malpractice Lawyer Hospital Malpractice
Medical Malpractice Lawyer — Hospital Malpractice
Did you ever wonder which of the many hospitals located near you is the safest? There is a government website that can help you decide. It’s called Hospital Compare and it’s run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hospital Compare has been on the web since 2005. Recently Hospital Compare added hospital death rate statistics for pneumonia, heart attack, and heart failure. Here’s how Hospital Compare can work for you: Say you are at risk of heart attack and you want to know which hospital in your area you should go to should you develop chest pain. Go to the Hospital Compare website and enter your zip code. Then select a distance (e.g., “in this city”; 10 miles; 25 miles; etc.), and click on “Find & Compare Hospitals”. Now you can compare the heart attack death rates for the various hospitals within that distance from you.
As an example, I asked for all hospitals within 10 miles of the 15201 zip code. 10 different hospitals fit that description. Of those 10 hospitals, I compared West Penn, UPMC Presbyterian and Allegheny General. According to the statistics, the 30-day mortality rate for heart attack patients at West Penn is 15.7%; for AGH it is 16.4%; and for UPMC Presby it is 16.2%. The national average is 16.1%.
Thus, by using the Hospital Compare website, I was able to learn that the 30-day mortality rate for heart attack patients is slightly above the national average at AGH and Presby; and slightly below the national average at West Penn.If you were a patient at one of the many local hospitals and you suspect that you were the victim of medical malpractice or medical negligence, you should call the attorneys at Berger & Lagnese, LLC at 412-471-4300 or email us. The lawyers at Berger & Lagnese, LLC specialize in medical malpractice cases and work on cases in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Uniontown, Erie, Washington, and all courts in Western Pennsylvania.