Medicare recently released data that shows that hospitals that have been given high marks for patient care by patients are not always the safest hospitals. Some hospitals have high death rates for heart failure patients despite the fact that patients applaud the hospital’s patient care. The data looks at death rates and readmission rates for heart failure, heart attacks and pneumonia. Medicare basically looked at 4,600 hospitals throughout the USA and found that 323 of them had above average death rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.

These new statistics indicate that nationally 15.9 percent of patients who suffer a heart attack will die, that 11.3% of patients who suffer heart failure will die, and 11.9% of patients who have pneumonia will die. In the State of Maryland the death rates for those admitted with a heart attack are as follows:

  • Howard County General Hospital 12.3%
  • Shady Grove Adventist Hospital 14.4%
  • Montgomery General Hospital 14.5%
  • Suburban Hospital 14.9%
  • Holy Cross Hospital 15.7%
  • Prince George’s Hospital 16%
  • University of Maryland 16.2%

These statistics can be found at

This information can be helpful to those who have risk factors for heart failure or heart attack. It is good to know which hospitals have the lowest and highest death rates for heart failure and heart attacks because if, God forbid, you or a loved one suffers from a heart attack you want to be able to choose the hospital which has the most resources and the best track record and survival rate.