Heart Patients Get Top Care at Ben Taub, LBJ
New federal Web site ranks HCHD with the best in the U.S.

Heart attack patients at Ben Taub and LBJ hospitals get some of the best treatment in the nation, according to Hospital Compare, a new Web site created by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

The site compares data from 4,200 hospitals nationwide – including 22 in the Houston area – to focus on hospital treatment of people suffering heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.  

The comparison tool shows the Hospital District’s practices and care protocols are on par with the best hospitals in the nation. It uses 17 measures to rate hospital care, including such items as giving patients ACE inhibitors and aspirin. HCHD’s two hospitals exceeded or tied in several areas. 

“The Hospital District has much to be proud about,” said David S. Lopez, Interim President and CEO. “Now more people around the country will know of the high-level quality care we provide our patients. The successful partnership of our administrative, nursing, medical and support staffs is the reason for these outstanding results.” 

Hospital Compare launched April 1 to show consumers the quality of care hospitals provide around the nation. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services collaborated with organizations representing hospitals, doctors, employers, accrediting organizations, federal agencies and the public to create the site. 

Based on scientific guidelines, hospitals develop procedures to care for all types of medical conditions.  

“Our interdisciplinary teams (The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine) with HCHD nursing and pharmacy staff create practice guidelines and treatment patterns for our hospitals,” said Dr. Michael Gardner, Director of Medical Quality. “The development of these practice guidelines will ensure that the hard work of the medical and nursing staff continues and that these treatment decisions become standard throughout the Hospital District.”  

So, for example, only 75 percent of heart attack victims nationwide receive ACE inhibitors – a medicine used to treat heart attacks and heart failure. But at HCHD, staff gave ACE inhibitors to 96 percent of patients. 

The Houston Chronicle on April 2 reported that use of ACE inhibitors varied widely in Houston. “At Christus St. Joseph Hospital, 66 percent of heart attack patients get an ACE inhibitor…at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, home of the Texas Heart Institute, 73 percent of patients get the drug.”

Another measure is giving aspirin to patients when arriving and leaving a hospital. HCHD did so 98 percent of the time for both admissions and discharges. Nationally, hospitals give aspirin to 91 percent of people arriving and 86 percent leaving. 

But not all areas within HCHD were positive.  

“Our work continues as we strive to improve our rates for smoking cessation classes and the timing of antibiotics for community-acquired pneumonia cases,” Gardner said. 

Information on the federal site about Ben Taub and LBJ hospitals is listed collectively under the name Harris County Hospital District. The site will be updated annually.