New Jersey Hospitals Improve Pneumonia, Heart Attack Care, Report Finds
New Jersey hospitals improved care provided to pneumonia and heart attack patients in 2004, according to a second annual report on hospital quality recently released by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The report focuses on the quality of care that hospitals provided to pneumonia and heart attack patients because the conditions are common, often lead to hospitalization and have specific treatment guidelines.
According to the report, New Jersey hospitals in 2004 had an average score of 83% for the provision of two recommended treatments and one test to pneumonia patients, compared with 75% in 2003. The report also found that New Jersey hospitals in 2004 had an average score of 93% for the provision of five recommended treatments to heart attack patients, compared with 91% in 2003.
New Jersey hospitals that scored in the lowest 25% in 2003 improved the most, with an average score increase of 13 percentage points for pneumonia care and nine percentage points for heart attack care, the report found. In addition, the report found that the 82 New Jersey acute-care hospitals scored higher than the national average on the provision of five of the eight recommended treatments for pneumonia and heart attack patients and equaled the national average on the provision of the other three recommended treatments.
Fred Jacobs, commissioner of the state health and senior services department, attributed the results of the report to improvements to organized programs that involve physicians, nurses, other staff and groups outside of New Jersey hospitals (Johnson, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/19).
The report is available online. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report.