State posts report on pneumonia care

The quality of care and the average prices hospitals charge to treat adult patients with pneumonia vary greatly across the state. But fewer pneumonia patients in the hospital die, on average, according to national comparisons of similar hospitals and patients.

Those are among the key findings of the Utah Hospital Comparison Report on Pneumonia Hospitalizations for Adults. The pneumonia comparison is the latest in a series of online reports mandated by the Legislature to give consumers information to help them make choices when it comes to seeking health care. Previous reports include cost and quality of maternity care, hip and knee surgery and others.

"In the past, this sort of information has been available but not very understandable to the public," said Dr. Carol Masheter, lead research analyst for the Utah Department of Health, which produced the report under the guidance of its Health Data Committee.

The bill the lawmakers passed told the department to "make health care information as transparent as we can and accessible to ordinary readers." It's important, she added, because "times are changing. Consumers are going to become more active in making health choices" that consider those factors.

About 1 percent of Utah adults get pneumonia each year, sometimes with deadly results. Between 2003 and 2005, more than 20,000 Utah adults were hospitalized with pneumonia, which can come in various forms but when combined with influenza is the seventh-leading cause of death in Utah.

Those most at risk of life-threatening or deadly complications are the very old, the very young and people with chronic medical conditions and compromised immune systems, said Mike Mower, a health department research analyst.

The report focuses on common types of pneumonia in adult patients.

Mower said he hopes consumers will use information they gain from the report — including links to information on avoiding pneumonia, secondhand tobacco smoke and more — to start a conversation with their doctors about care.

The report only covers the 40 hospitals that treated enough pneumonia patients to be statistically valid. Of those, 14 had fewer deaths than expected when compared to national numbers, while 25 had about the expected number of deaths. Only one hospital had more deaths than expected.