In the first national survey of patients' experiences, many hospitals were found wanting in key areas such as pain management and discharge instructions. Almost one-third of patients gave low ratings to pain management, and one-fifth gave low ratings to communication at discharge. For the study, a Harvard team reviewed data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. Of the 4,032 hospitals that report quality of care data, 2,429 reported patients' experience. (Subscription required)

While it has long been understood that clinical practice influenced the youthful writing of doctor-authors like Chekhov and William Carlos Williams, there is now emerging evidence that exposure to literature and writing during residency training can influence how young doctors approach their clinical work. By bringing short stories, poems and essays into hospital wards and medical schools, educators hope to encourage fresh thinking and help break down the wall between doctors and patients. (Subscription required)

Imagine what would happen if we learned that a major business was wasting a third of its revenue by grossly overspending while rewarding poor quality and mistakes. Everyone from the company's board members to its shareholders would be outraged. They would demand answers. And they would demand change. There is, in fact, such a business: healthcare. It is an industry in which everyone has a stake - as a patient, a payer, or a provider. And yet the stakeholders have been alarmingly quiet on the issue of waste and inefficiency.

Health care has managed to avoid the information-technology revolution. But it won't for much longer. (Subscription required)

The death rate at top-ranked U.S. hospitals is 70% lower than at the lowest-ranked hospitals, according to a study that examined 41 million patient records at 5,000 hospitals over three years. The study focused on 17 procedures and found that overall death rates declined by 14.7% from 2005 to 2007. Top-performing five-star hospitals reduced their death rates faster (about 13.2%) than poorer-performing one- and three-star hospitals (12.3 and 13.1%, respectively). (Free subscription required)