How to find the best hospital for your surgery after a Tampa auto accident

If you're in a Tampa or Clearwater auto accident with serious injuries that require immediate surgery, you will not have much choice on where the ambulance takes you for surgical care. But often after a car accident, the determination whether surgery is necessary may take weeks, months or sometimes even years. That should give you plenty of time to consider your options before deciding on which surgeon and which hospital to have the surgery done in. Choosing the right hospital can be an important component influencing how quickly you recover, how good an outcome you achieve and whether or not you have complications. So if you have the opportunity to choose a hospital, this article offers some advice and insight that you may find helpful.

Of course, your surgeon may dictate the hospital that you need to go to for your surgery. This is because your surgeon will likely have the privilege of operating only at certain hospitals. But often, the surgeon will have privileges at several hospitals so that you will have some choice in the matter. And if the surgeon only has privileges at a hospital that you don’t think offers top notch care, you might want to consider consulting with another surgeon.

So after a Tampa car accident that requires surgery, how would you know what hospital is best for your procedure? A car accident attorney would likely first direct you to the Internet for information about the hospitals in your area that might be available to you. But on the internet there is a dizzying array of websites, information, rating systems, surveys and statistics that can make your head spin. Examining all this information may cause you more confusion than actually providing you the help that you’re looking for.

A better way to find one of the best places to look for information with regard to hospitals in your area might be the nonprofit Joint Commission. This Commission accredits most US hospitals and they publish a rather consumer friendly Quality Check, which is a simplified overview of the data used by Medicare and Medicaid to help them compare hospitals. The information made available by the Joint Commission would not just be useful for someone getting back surgery or knee surgery as a result of a Tampa personal injury, but also would be helpful with regard to other types of common ailments like heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.

To check out the information available from the Joint Commission quality check standard, go to www.qualitycheck.org. On that website you'll find ratings on most of the hospitals in the Tampa Bay area. For example, you’ll find information about Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, which is considered to be a busy trauma hospital. According to the website, they lag behind other hospitals ensuring surgical patients are given the most appropriate antibiotics and have the medication stopped within 24 hours after the procedure. Knowing that, you might inquire at Bayfront what steps have been taken to address this issue. A Tampa injury lawyer might also suggest that you talk with the doctor about the issue to find out their opinion. If you decide that Bayfront is the best hospital for your surgical procedure, you now have information you might share with relatives so they can be on the lookout for possible problems with your antibiotics after your surgery.

Just like anything else, the Joint Commissions’ report card cannot always be expected to be absolutely accurate. But it is a useful tool and a starting point. After reviewing the available information, it would be appropriate to talk with your surgeon about the ratings and your findings before making any final decisions. If you continue to have any questions about your surgical hospital or are looking for other resources with which to compare hospitals, feel free to call our Tampa injury attorneys for more information.