Mortality rate of heart failure patients at Loyola is 24% lower than national average

The 30-day mortality rate of heart failure patients at Loyola University Hospital is 24 percent lower than the national average, according to the latest data from the federal government's Hospital Compare report card.

Loyola also did better than state and national averages in overall patient satisfaction and in the percentage of patients who would recommend Loyola to friends and family.

The national 30-day death rate among heart failure patients is 11.2 percent. Loyola's rate is 8.5 percent. (The rate takes into account how sick patients were before they were admitted.) Loyola is among the 5 percent of hospitals that were significantly better than the national average for heart failure mortality. The data includes Medicare patients discharged between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2009.

In patient satisfaction surveys, patients were asked to rate their hospitals on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 the worst and 10 the best. Sixty-seven percent of Loyola patients gave Loyola a 9 or 10, compared with the Illinois average of 63 percent and the national average of 66 percent.

Seventy-four percent of Loyola patients said they "definitely" would recommend Loyola to friends and family, and an additional 21 percent said they "probably" would recommend Loyola. By comparison, 66 percent of patients in Illinois and 68 percent of patients nationwide said they definitely would recommend their hospitals.