Key Findings

How did Utah quality of care compare with the nation in 2005 through 2007?

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. Rates and measures used are in parentheses. For more details, see the Technical Document.

5 (0.1%) of 6,066 hip replacement patients died (AHRQ IQI 14) in 24 Utah hospitals that treated at least 30 of these patients
5 (0.6%) of 843 hip fracture patients died (AHRQ IQI 19) in 7 Utah hospitals that treated at least 30 of these patients.

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

Utah overall had about the same rate of in-hospital hip replacement deaths as expected for similar patients nationwide, as did all 24 Utah hospitals that treated at least 30 of these patients. 22 of the 24 hospitals had no in-hospital deaths among these patients from 2005 through 2007.
Utah overall had about the same rate of in-hospital deaths among hip fracture patients as expected for similar patients nationwide. All 7 hospitals that treated at least 30 of these patients had about the same rate of in-hospital hip fracture deaths as expected. Four of the seven hospitals had no in-hospital deaths among these patients from 2005 through 2007.

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

How did hospital charges differ among Utah hospitals in 2007?

Average hospital charges among adult inpatients for the knee or hip procedures and conditions in this report differed widely in 2007. Measures used are in parentheses. For more details, see the Technical Document.

For patients at the minor/moderate severity of illness level, average hospital charges ranged from:

$22,708 to $46,904 among 28 Utah hospitals that reported charges for hip joint replacement patients (APR-DRG 301).

$22,170 to $47,512 among 28 Utah hospitals that reported charges for knee joint replacement (APR-DRG 302).
$11,044 to $29,237 among 29 Utah hospitals that reported charges for Knee, Lower Leg and Ankle Procedures (APR-DRG 308). These procedures do not include knee joint replacement.

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

310 patients had bilateral knee joint replacement or about 5% of all knee replacement patients.
20 patients had bilateral hip joint replacement or about 0.6% of all hip replacement patients.

Note that many factors will affect hospital charges. Read more in “About the Data”.