A Closer Look:

Hospital Mortality

The Scorecard measures deaths within 30 days of hospital discharge among Medicare beneficiaries who were treated for four common conditions: heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia. Hospital 30-day mortality rates rose in nearly all states between the two measurement periods reported in the Scorecard, driving the national average from 13.2 percent to 14.1 percent.⁴⁷ The increase in this rate, which represents a reversal in an earlier improvement trend, appears to be driven by a sharp uptick in mortality among pneumonia patients.