How to Choose the Best Hospital For Your Surgery
How to Choose the Best Hospital For Your Surgery
If your doctor determined that a surgery is necessary for you to get better, you are probably wondering where to have it done. With many options in medical travel care around the globe, how do you choose? In this blog, we will talk about some points to consider when searching for the best hospital to have a procedure done.
Like most people, you are probably looking to for a facility that has the best outcomes for the type of surgery you are seeking, offers quality care before, during and after the procedure and has comfortable amenities for recovery. We offer you some insights into what to look for and how to obtain the information needed.
Accreditations and Awards
First and foremost, ensure that a hospital of your choice is a reputable one. There are a few companies that offer hospital accreditations. The most known one is Joint Commission International (JCI), which is considered a gold standard in global healthcare. Other organizations such as Accreditation Canada and Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) provide for a way to tell that the facility has met the accredited body health care standards. Many good hospitals are also winners of various awards in excellent care. All this information can be found on the hospital’s website. Ensure you know what the accreditation and award organizations check and rate.
Important hospital statistics
The next step would be to look at a hospital infection, re-admission and mortality rates and compare it to a state, province or country average. This should also be available on the hospitals’ website. Some hospitals make it a point to tell their patients what they are doing about lowering those rates, which is an indicator of being proactive and caring about the outcomes. Also, check with the states’ or provinces’ department of health. Many of them now require monitoring for serious reportable events or incidents (SRE/SRI) – preventable, adverse events that are unambiguous, and largely, if not entirely preventable, such as operating on a wrong body part, performing a wrong surgery and so on.
When researching a hospital, look for a number of surgeries performed a year for your particular type of surgery. It takes practice to become an expert and there is proficiency in numbers. Ask the hospital if they have a floor for recovery and an operating room just for your type of surgery. Nurse to patient ratio is also used to assess the quality and ease of access to pre- and post-surgery care.
Brand names vs smaller facilities
Famous names and large hospitals are not always the best for your type of procedure. Smaller regional hospitals can do a better job at a better price. Smaller cities can be easier to access with less traffic, more parking and larger hospital rooms. Many smaller independent surgical facilities employ surgeons that also operate at large brand-name hospitals.
Finding out the pros and cons of the different facilities can be time-consuming and confusing. Health Vantis can do all the legwork for you and present you with 2-3 options so that you can focus on getting better. Contact us for your free 1-hour consultation to learn more.
Health Vantis
877-344-3544
info@healthvantis.com
