Downtown Pittsburgh.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an independent auditing agency funded by state government, reported that mortality rates for 10 of 16 medical conditions fell at hospitals statewide during a five-year period ending in 2014, reported The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The largest decrease was in the dangerous blood disease septicemia, which decreased by about one-third to 11 percent in 2014 from 17.7 percent in 2009.
The council also reported that hospital readmission rates within a month of discharge from the hospital fell for several conditions, including stroke, congestive heart failure and managing heart attack with prescription drugs and other noninvasive means.
The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania said the results reflected the hospitals’ quality-of-care improvements, reported the paper.
But, the council said, the mortality rate from two conditions increased. The biggest increase was in treating heart attack by implanting a stent, up to 1.8 percent in 2014 from 1.4 percent in 2009. The other increase was for low blood pressure and fainting, which rose to 0.4 percent from 0.2 percent.
.
