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Patients are almost 70 percent less likely overall to die in a top-tier hospital as they are in a bottom-tier one, according to a recent comprehensive HealthGrades study of Medicare patients aged 65 and older undergoing certain emergency procedures. HealthGrades is a healthcare-ratings firm, with data from 2003-05.
Meanwhile, in 2005, there was only one geriatric medicine specialist for every 5,000 Americans over age 65, and only nine out of the nation’s 145 medical schools offered a department of geriatrics, according to an article in the New York Times.
In a statement by Dr. William Plested, III, the president of the American Medical Association, he warns that a cut to Medicare reimbursements, proposed by Congress, will send even more doctors away from the specialty.
