| "Empowered Patient is a regular feature from CNN Medical News correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care." " -- Chuck Toeniskoetter says he's alive today because of a nurse and a paramedic who came to his aid when he collapsed one snowy day high atop a mountain. " " They didn't administer CPR. They didn't give him life-saving drugs. They didn't treat him at all. What they did was get him to the right hospital. " " The helicopter ambulance pilot wanted to take Toeniskoetter to the closest hospital. But the nurse and the paramedic suspected he'd had a stroke and urged the pilot to go to a certified stroke center, 15 minutes further away. " " "They stood on the runners of the helicopter and were relentless with the pilot," Toeniskoetter remembers. "They saved my life." " " At Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, California, Toeniskoetter received TPA, a drug that dissolved the clot in his brain. It's likely that at the other hospital -- the one the helicopter ambulance pilot wanted to take him to -- he wouldn't have received TPA. " " Studies are now finding that not all hospitals are created equal for every medical emergency. Whether it's a" ", the research says it's worth doing whatever it takes to get to the right place. "A lot of people think hospitals are all the same," said Dr. Samantha Collier, chief medical officer at " "A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine says heart attack patients have a higher chance of surviving if brought to one of U.S. News & World Report's Top 50 hospitals for treating heart problems. " "A study earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine finds very low birth weight newborns are more likely to survive if treated in a high-level neonatal intensive care unit that takes care of a large volume of very low birth weight babies. " " "If we're going to spend hours on the Internet doing research before we buy a car, we should spend at least as much time researching hospitals," said Collier." ". You can find out the best place to get hip surgery in Topeka, Kansas, or the best place to have a baby in New York City." " If the information isn't available on the Internet, you'll have to call the hospital's quality office. Collier says ask about volume; hospitals that perform a high
... read the whole article |