Up to 30 percent of patients suffer infections, heart attacks, strokes, or other complications after surgery and sometimes even die as a result. Perhaps scariest of all, though many hospitals now gather data on those problems, patients for the most part remain in the dark about surgical safety. In this investigation, Consumer Reports sheds light on the critical issue of hospital safety by rating 2,463 hospitals, making public for the first time a measure that some hospitals now use to track quality. This investigative report looks at what can go wrong during and after surgery, why hospitals often have little incentive to improve patient safety, and how consumers can choose the best hospital.
