By Kansas Public Radio
Lawrence, KS – Most Kansas hospitals are not making the grade, according to an annual survey. The national hospital monitoring service called "Health Grades" says the state's hospitals are in the bottom tier compared with other states.
"When it comes to performance, in our system we have one star which is poor performance, three star which is average, and five star which is terrific," says Dr. Richard May, co-author of survey. "Kansas is actually performing at a one star level - so kind of that poor level, both for overall complication rates in hospitals and also in mortality rates, death rates in hospitals."
May says Health Grades compares hospitals based on mortality and complication rates by using nearly 40 million Medicare records and data from personal visits.
Despite the state's overall poor grade, there are some standout hospitals in Kansas. University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas is among the state's five-star facilities.