Doctors' Hospitals Provide Quality Care

Saturday, March 1, 2008

on health @ Doctors’ Hospitals Provide Quality Care (NAPSA)—Hospitals consume almost one-third of the nation’s $2 trillion annual health care bill. A growing trend is the physicianowned hospital. These hospitals, where doctors are in charge, not bureaucrats, often provide a higher quality of care and better outcomes than their chain hospital counterparts. Doctor-owned hospitals can be general hospitals offering a full range of services, or specialty facilities focusing on one area of care like cardiac care or orthopedics. According to a study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, patients rated doctor-owned hospitals 37 points higher than the national average for all hospitals. Other recent studies prove the length of stay was shorter at doctor-owned specialty hospitals, and Medicare patients undergoing joint replacement surgery in specialty orthopedic hospitals had a 50 percent lowerrisk of adverse outcomes. But some in Congress want to limit Medicare patients’ access to these high-quality hospitals. As our population ages, these facilities will play an importantrole in keeping patients healthy and reducing our nation’s overall health carebill, according to experts at the Senior Center for Health and Security. As part of its efforts to promote the promise and potential of medical innovation in ensuring seniors live longer and healthier lives, the Senior Center believes that America needs doctor-owned hospitals to provide better health care and much needed competition in the hospital marketplace. You can learn more on the value of doctor-owned hospitals online at www.seniorsforcures.org.