COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
A new report rates the nation's hospitals on whether patients end up becoming more ill after they check in, included in that study is some three dozen South Carolina hospitals.
Patients enter hospitals expecting to leave in better shape.
But a report from a leading consumer organization says too many patients end up with new and at times, more serious health problems after a hospital stay.
That study, in the August edition of Consumer Reports outlines serious safety issues in nearly 12 hundred hospitals, some of them here in the Midlands.
The magazine rated 40 South Carolina hospitals in six categories: Number of new infections, re-admissions, communication between staff and patients, CT scans ordered, complications and mortality.
Among Midlands hospitals, Palmetto Health Richland scored highest, but still only managing a rating of 54 on a scale of zero to one hundred.
Further down on the rankings is Palmetto Health Baptist with a 48.
Dr. Shawn Stinson speaks for both.
"We still have room to move," said Dr. Shawn Stinson with Palmetto Health. "We still have patients that come into the hospital without an infection who develop one. It doesn't happen near as often as it used to. But we do a lot of things that are very complicated while people are in the hospital and they are at risk."
Also rated was Providence Hospital with a 53 and Lexington Medical Center at 51.
"We think it's important for consumers to have this kind of information," said Jennifer Wilson with the Lexington Medical Center. "But there's no easy way to gauge quality of care in a hospital in one study. There can be different measurements and different studies."
Consumer Reports was able to determine safety ratings for only about a fifth of the country's hospitals.
Officials say mandatory reporting requirements here have gone a long way toward giving consumers vital information, even when it points out failures.
"We have seen over time, over the last few years our numbers decrease tremendously," said Stinson. "The great thing is that hospitals across the country are doing the same thing. So while we're not happy scoring in the 50's at all, this will make us better."
South Carolina put one hospital in the consumer reports top ten. Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville scored a 69, but out of those almost 12 hundred hospitals nationwide, the one with the least number of post-admission infections, surgical errors and other problems is in Billings Montana and they scored only a 72.
Meaning there's plenty of room for improvement even at the best hospitals in the United States.
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