You are right - I am a fan of LRGH but I ALWAYS believe we should be trying to do things better. Since you reference heart-failure and heart attack patients let me mention something LRGH has been doing. About 2 years ago LRGH changed the way it treats ST elevation myocardial infarctions (certain types of heart attacks). As a result LRGH has a cardiac save rate around 24% while the nationwide average is closer to 12%. That means your are twice as likely to survive a heart attack in the lakes region than you are elsewhere in the country. It has been such a successful program that NH is now looking at rolling it out statewide. Where in the consumer reports article was something like that referenced?
Your comments about readmission rates are accurate but are you aware that readmission rates increase as income levels drop? This is because affluent people have better access to doctors, better access to home health care etc. That means a hospital life Wentworth-Douglas which is located in an affluent area will almost always have better readmission rates than hospitals in places like Laconia and Franklin which are not as affluent. Should hospitals really be punished for treating the poor?
It just disappoints me when a nationwide magazine uses misleading data and it makes good hospitals look bad. For example that same Consumer report article you reference suggests that Mass General is one of the worst in mass and much worse than LRGH. Meanwhile US News & World report just stated that Mass Gen is the best hospital in the entire country. How does that make sense?
I am just as big a fan of Huggins in wolfeboro, Speare in Plymouth, and Concord hospital. We have great hospitals in this state. The ones in rural areas might not be as big or shiny nor might not offer as many services but they are all critically important to keeping us all healthy.
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