Hospitals perform amazing feats. They save many thousands of lives each year. They make it possible for patients who just a few decades ago would have been consigned to permanent disability or death to live happy and healthy lives.

But hospitals are also dangerous places. With the best intentions, they feed you strong drugs, cut deep into your body, and intervene in your life in other powerful ways. You are vulnerable, and things often go wrong. An authoritative Institute of Medicine study estimated that at least 44,000, and possibly as many as 98,000, patients die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors - preventable errors. That is more than the number who die from motor vehicle accidents.

In this book, you will find ratings of nearly every acute care hospital in the United States. Hospitals are compared on their death rates, rates of adverse outcomes (including surgical complications), ratings by thousands of physicians who are familiar with them, scores given by expert inspectors who have done extensive on-site reviews, availability of on-going training programs for physicians, and other measures. You will find hospitals where you will feel confident that the care will be excellent. You will find others that you will want to avoid