Users flood, crash new state hospital ranking site

Patients can compare rankings of Illinois hospitals for a wide range of performance and cost measurements on a new Web site that debuted Thursday.

The Illinois Hospital Report Card, for the first time, ranks hospitals and surgery centers based on quality of care, infections, complications, staffing and cost, along with other criteria.

The site, by the Illinois Department of Public Health at healthcarereportcard.illinois.gov or at idph.state.il.us, was so popular it crashed twice before getting back up.

Consumers can choose which hospitals and which criteria they want to compare by facility, county, or geographic radius.

A sampling of searches found some patterns. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, for instance, ranked in the top three among local hospitals in all three quality of care measures, which rated how often a hospital followed recommended treatments for pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure patients. Also in the top five in all quality of care categories: St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Many hospitals struggled with patient satisfaction, with the rankings among local hospitals ranging from 76 to 44 percent who were highly satisfied. Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield topped the list among local hospitals, while Adventist GlenOaks in Glendale Heights came in lowest. The national average for highly satisfied patients is 64 percent.

Jacqueline Conrad, chief nursing officer at Adventist GlenOaks in Glendale Heights, noted that the survey results are a year old, and said her hospital has made great strides trying to improve patient satisfaction since then.

GlenOaks started a program last year to build morale and engagement among front-line caregivers, training employees to introduce themselves and describe their background to patients, and explain any procedures they're about to go through.

"We recognize the patients are at their most vulnerable when they come to a hospital," Conrad said, "and we want to reduce their anxiety."

Some criteria seem quirky but mean a lot to patients. Among the local hospitals, Delnor Community in Geneva kept patient rooms the quietest at night and Centegra Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry responded to call buttons most consistently.

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington came up as the lowest-cost among local hospitals for numerous procedures. Advocate Condell in Libertyville often came out on the top of the cost list.

So many factors go into cost, Good Shepherd spokesman Mike Deering said, it's hard to explain why. But he said hospitals are very mindful of cost, avoiding unnecessarily stays and unnecessary tests, for instance.

The cost data on the site are probably the least useful, because most fees are negotiated lower with insurers or patients, said Ian Jones, vice president for clinical performance at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, which came in around the middle of most cost comparisons for local hospitals.

In general, he said of the rankings, "Anything that sheds light on medical care and outcomes that patients can access is a good thing."

Illinois was a pioneer when lawmakers directed the report card to be created in 2003, but the state now lags behind others. It took six years to work out funding, staffing and logistics, Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said.

Hospitals report the information and have the opportunity to check it for accuracy. Some categories, such as mortality rates, were not initially on the site, but more items will be added as time goes on.

After years of operating in obscurity, hospitals are increasingly being judged online at a variety of sites.

Also Thursday, at the national level, America's Health Rankings rated Illinois 29th among states for its overall health, crediting us for a high number of primary care physicians, but dinging us for pollution and a high rate of binge drinking.

Those rankings are based on community behavior, the environment, health policy and clinical care. The findings are published jointly by United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention.

Consumers also can find performance data at the Hospital Compare Site at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Illinois Hospital Association is working on a Web site to compile patient safety, satisfaction and performance data.