10 dirtiest hospital secrets [chapter4]

7. "All hospitals are not created equal."

How to tell a good hospital from a bad one? For one thing, nurses. When it comes to their own families, medical workers favor institutions that attract nurses. But they are harder to find as the country's nursing shortage intensifies, for 2020, a deficit of about 1 million nurses. staffing under the nurse directly affected patient outcomes resulting in more problems such as urinary tract infections, shock and gastrointestinal bleeding, according to a 2001 study by Harvard and Vanderbilt University professors.

Another thing to consider: The local hospital could have been great to welcome his son into the world, but that does not mean it is the best place to undergo open heart surgery. Find the installation with the longest record of the track, the better survival rate and higher volume in the proceeding; dont want to be the replacement of hip team in third place, says Samantha Collier, HealthGrades chief medical officer, the hospital fees.

A website of the American Nurses Association lists "magnet" hospitals - those most attractive to nurses - and a call to the supervising nurse of a hospital must provide the nurse-patient relationship.

A good tool to help consumers evaluate hospitals is a website operated by the Department of Health and Human Services hospitals compared with national averages in certain areas. The site includes information about the ability of hospitals caring for patients with certain medical conditions, and the results of patient surveys asking them about their stay, said Anne F. Weiss, senior program director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health care nonprofit.

8. "Most ERs are in need of some urgent care themselves."

A 2007 study from the Institute of Medicine found that emergency departments are overburdened hospitals, funds and ill-prepared to handle disasters as the number of people using ERs for primary care continues to rise. An ambulance was turned away from an ER once every minute due to overcrowding, according to the study, the situation is aggravated by the scarcity of many backup services on call for cardiologists, orthopedists and neurosurgeons.

Almost three quarters of ER directors reported inadequate coverage by specialists on call versus 67% in 2004, according to a 2006 survey conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

If you can, avoid the RE 3 pm-1 am - The most active of change. For a short wait, early morning - anywhere 4-9 am - is your best bet. If you are having severe symptoms, such as the worst headache of your life or chest pains, a triage nurse is trained to recognize whether your symptoms are a medical emergency. I only know that the emergency department staff are stressful during busy times, but give "honest descriptions of their symptoms and really work with the staff is the best way to advocate for you and your family as a patient," says Darria E. Long, a doctor in the Yale department of emergency medicine.