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Article: Mortality Rates High At 12 Veterans Hospitals; Study Likely to Fuel Health-Care Debate
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 14, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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A long-awaited study by the Department of Veterans Affairs has
found overall mortality rates excessively high at 12 veterans
hospitals, many of them in the South.
The study, which also identified "significantly elevated" death
rates by disease categories at 43 veterans hospitals, is expected to
fuel debate over the quality of health care in the nation's 172
veterans hospitals. The report said researchers found that 5.1
percent of 1,771 deaths at the problem hospitals involved poor
medical care.
Although veterans department and other health researchers
cautioned that the department findings could not be compared with
other mortality studies because veterans are more likely to be older, ...