Key Findings

How did Utah’s quality of stroke care in hospitals compare with the nation?

For in-hospital deaths, Utah hospitals overall did about as expected compared to similar adult inpatients nationwide for deaths from stroke. Utah overall means all Utah hospitals combined.

Measures used are in square brackets. For more details, see the Technical Document.

From 2004 through 2006, 673 (10.8%) of 6,228 adult stroke patients died in Utah hospitals [IQI 17]. Utah overall had about the same percentage of deaths as expected for similar patients nationwide [IQI 17].

Among the 23 Utah hospitals that treated 30 or more adult stroke inpatients from 2004 through 2006 [IQI 17]

One hospital (4%) had fewer deaths than expected.
22 hospitals (96%) had about as many deaths as expected.
No hospitals had more deaths than expected.

There are several kinds of strokes as well as several causes and risk factors. This report includes hospital tables for some of the more common kinds of stroke among adults. Learn more about stroke and see the Stroke Technical Document.

Note that many factors can affect in-hospital stroke deaths at a particular hospital. The measures in this report include stroke patients with do not resuscitate orders and other stroke patients near the end of their life. Read more in About the Data.

How did hospital charge differ among Utah hospitals?

Average hospital charge for the more common kinds of adult stroke inpatients [APR-DRG 045 Cerebral Vascular Accident and Precerebral Occlusion With Infarction] in this report differed widely. Among the 37 Utah hospitals that reported charge for adult stroke inpatients in 2006, average hospital charge ranged from

$3,660 to $18,244 for patients with minor/moderate illness level
$2,386 to $26,051 for patients with major/extreme illness level

Some less common kinds of strokes include:

Bleeding within the skull [APR-DRG 044 Intracranial Hemorrhage]. Utah hospitals treated 358 of these patients with an average charge of $11,751 and a range of $3,182 to $16,433 for the minor/moderate level for severity of illness.
Stroke without death of brain tissue [APR-DRG 046 Nonspecific Cerebral Vascular Accident and Precerebral Occlusion Without Infarction]. Utah hospitals treated 66 of these patients with an average charge of $9,729 with a range of $4,541 to $16,329 for minor/moderate level for severity of illness.
Because of the relatively small numbers of these patients, this report does not include hospital tables for them.

As expected, average hospital charge for patients treated at the major/extreme level of illness tend to be higher. Often these patients require more complex treatment and longer hospital stays than patients at the minor/moderate illness level. However, patients who are very ill and die before they receive much treatment or have "do not resuscitate" orders may have low charge. For a complete list of kinds of stroke included in this report, see the Technical Document.

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