Danbury Hospital Among Nation’s Best For Women’s Health

DANBURY — Danbury Hospital has received the 2009-10 Women’s Health Excellence Award from HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent health care ratings organization, based on a newly released study of patient outcomes.

Hospitals that receive this award rank among the top five percent of all hospitals nationwide when it comes to providing care to women in three areas: Women’s Medicine (heart attack, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stroke); Women’s Cardiovascular Procedures (coronary bypass surgery, peripheral vascular bypass, coronary interventional procedures, resection/replacement of abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid surgery, and valve replacement); and Women’s Bone & Joint Health (total knee and total hip replacement surgeries, spinal surgeries, and hip fracture repair).

According to the Sixth Annual HealthGrades Women’s Health in American Hospitals study released this week by HealthGrades, wide gaps in quality outcomes for women persist among hospitals.

The study, which analyzes patient outcomes for the in-hospital treatment of 16 procedures/diagnoses concerning women’s health and maternity care, finds that top-performing hospitals improved their mortality and morbidity 33 percent more than poorly performing hospitals in the period studied, 2005 through 2007.

Among eligible hospitals, the study found that a total of 18,089 lives could have been saved and 6,849 complications avoided if all eligible hospitals performed at the level of the best-performing hospitals in women’s health.

“As our population ages, more women are affected and hospitalized by chronic diseases like congestive heart failure and variations in quality do exist between men and women,” said Dr Rick May, senior physician consultant and a study co-author. “The hospitals that have been identified as Women’s Health Excellence Award recipients are clearly performing at a superior level of quality. Women have a choice in health care and should do their homework prior to choosing a hospital.”

HealthGrades analyzed more than 2.6 million hospitalizations using Medicare data from all 50 states from 2005 through 2007. To be included in the analysis, hospitals had to have an open heart program and treat significant numbers of women for stroke. Hospitals also had to have a significant patient population in at least six additional cohorts from all areas (pulmonary, cardiac, vascular, orthopedics, and spine).

The full study can be found at HealthGrades.com.