Patient survival data now public

The government pulled back the curtain Thursday on one of the most closely guarded secrets in medicine: how many patients who seek hospital treatment die rather than survive.

Information is now available on the Internet on hospital death rates from heart attacks and heart failure, two of the most common conditions that send people to the nearest emergency room.

Nationally, mortality data for patients with heart attacks and heart failure at more than 4,440 hospitals were posted Thursday on Medicare's Hospital Compare Web site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov).


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