Key Findings

How did Utah quality of care compare with the nation in 2003 through 2005?

For in-hospital deaths, Utah hospitals overall did about as expected compared to similar adult inpatients nationwide for hip replacement and hip fracture.   Utah overall means all Utah hospitals combined.  Measures used are in parentheses.  For more details, see the Technical Document.

From 2003 through 2005, in Utah hospitals

• 12 out of 5,439 hip replacement patients died (AHRQ IQI 14).
• 163 out of 5,005 hip fracture patients died (AHRQ IQI 19).  

When each Utah hospital is compared to similar patients nationwide (based on a statistical test, the Exact 95% Confidence Interval):  

• All Utah hospitals had about the same percentage of in-hospital hip replacement deaths as expected for their patients’ age, gender and how ill the patients were).  15 hospitals that treated at least 30 heart failure patients had no in-hospital deaths among these patients from 2003 through 2005.
• Most hospitals had about the same percentage of in-hospital hip fracture deaths for their patient’s age, sex and how sick the patients were.  One hospital had a lower than expected percentage and one hospital had a higher than expected percentage.  Two additional hospitals treated at least 30 hip fracture patients and had no in-hospital deaths among these patients from 2003 through 2005.

Note that many factors can affect in-hospital deaths at a particular hospital.  Read more in “About the Report”.

How did hospital charges differ among Utah hospitals?

Average hospital charges among adult inpatients for the knee or hip procedures and conditions in this report differed widely in 2005. Measures used are in parentheses.  For more details, see the Technical Document.  For patients at the minor/moderate illness level, average hospital charges ranged from:

• $14,154 to $37,189 among 26 Utah hospitals that reported charges for hip joint replacement patients (APR-DRG 301). 

• $18,020 to $41,645 among 28 Utah hospitals that reported charges for knee joint replacement (APR-DRG 302).

• $1,550 to $20,337 among 28 Utah hospitals that reported charges for fracture of femur (APR-DRG 340). Most hip fractures are actually breaks in the femur’s neck, near where it fits into a cup in the pelvis.

As expected, average hospital charges for inpatients treated at the major/extreme illness level and for bilateral joint replacements (both joints replaced during the same hospital stay) were higher:

• 342 patients had bilateral knee joint replacement or about 6% of all knee replacement patients. 

• 9 patients had bilateral hip joint replacement or about 0.3% of all hip replacement patients.

Read more about bilateral hip and knee joint replacement (page 16 within document)

Note: Many factors will affect hospital charges. Read more in About the Report.