Hospital Reporting Initiative Does Not Reduce Mortality

Fit people tend to require less hospitalization than unfit people.

Hospital Compare, Medicare's public reporting initiative for hospitals, which was initiated in 2005, appears to have had little effect on patient mortality caused by heart attack and pneumonia, and only a modest effect on heart failure mortality, according to a new report.

Andrew Ryan, PhD, an assistant professor of public health and Walsh McDermont Scholar in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues reported their findings in the March issue of Health Affairs.

According to the researchers, Hospital Compare is Medicare's recent public reporting initiative and "is the most ambitious program to date. It includes quality measures that focus on heart attack, pneumonia, and heart failure for all US acute care hospitals."

All three of these conditions are more likely to occur in the unfit and at an earlier age, to boot.

Get fit.