Ill. Hospital Safety Data On National Report Card

CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois is one of nine states with complete hospital safety data on an online tool patients can use to compare quality.

The website, WhyNotTheBest.org, lets users compare hospitals to the Illinois average and to the nation's best hospitals.

Infection rates, death rates and rates of blood clots after surgery are among the newest measures reported.

Other participating states are Arizona, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

The site is a project of the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation supporting health policy research.

Most of the information is also available on Illinois' year-old hospital report card. Lisa McGiffert of Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project says the Illinois site is one of the nation's best.

More information at:

http://www.WhyNotTheBest.org
http://www.healthcarereportcard.illinois.gov

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