Introduction
The purpose of this discussion is to compare two hospitals in Denver, Colorado, and evaluate available information. The two hospitals in question are Rose Medical Center and Saint Joseph Hospital, both of which are present on the Medicare website. The site has a section dedicated to data about hospitals such as patient satisfaction rate and overall health outcomes. The inspection will cover the meaning of the data to nurses working at the institution and to the health care consumers. In addition, the paper will also include the differences between the patient responses available for each hospital and the significance of these variances.
Meaning to Nurses
Nurses can use the Medicare website to discover patients’ opinions regarding their performance. Some categories demonstrated in the patient survey of “Rose Medical Center” (n.d.), such as understanding of care and awareness of actions to take at home, relate to the quality of nurses’ work directly. Medical workers who view the website can compare the values for their hospital to state and national averages in order to discover problematic areas and attempt to address the issues. Other data are also available, but as nurses can obtain it from hospital records if necessary, it is not as relevant as patient experiences. However, the website provides a benchmark to test the performance of the hospital against that of the other institutions in the area.
Patient Experience Comparison
The “Survey of Patients’ Experiences” tab of the Medicare website’s hospital description page displays similar results for the two hospitals. Both “Rose Medical Center” (n.d.) and “Saint Joseph Hospital” (n.d.) show values that are mostly consistent with the state average, although the last three ratings are slightly above the norm in both cases. The high numbers represent the understanding of care, a high score on a scale of 1 to 10, and the likelihood of a recommendation to a friend. Neither of the hospitals displays any significant achievements or concerns, and each has several categories where it has a small advantage over the other, making the comparison inconclusive.
Meaning to Patients
Besides the section dedicated to reviews by patients who have attended the hospital, the Medicare hospital page offers considerable amounts of information to a potential visitor. The page for “Saint Joseph Hospital” (n.d.) provides statistics on timely and effective care, complications and deaths, medical imaging use, and payment and care information. The data on effective treatments and complications are supplied with averages for comparison, allowing patients to read the numbers correctly. The seemingly low values, particularly for effective therapies, may be misrepresented if viewed without context. However, with the display format used by the website, consumers may use the information to make informed decisions about their choice of hospital.
Conclusion
The Medicare website provides a comprehensive overview of the reports available about various hospitals as well as a tool that permits direct comparisons. Nurses can use this information to compare their institution against others as well as the average and determine areas that require improvements. Consumers can use the data to make informed decisions based on care quality and pricing. The two hospitals compared in this post display similar results that are in line with the state averages, with no significant outliers. They both appear to supply a high standard of care without charging prices that are noticeably different from the national average.
References
Rose Medical Center. (n.d.). Web.
Saint Joseph Hospital. (n.d.). Web.