Medical memo

Rating America's hospitals

When you check into a hospital, you want to be sure you'll be getting the very best care. That's always been true, but since more and more care is offered on an outpatient basis, the inpatient population has become sicker, more vulnerable, and more dependent on top-notch care.

America's medical establishment has a proud history, but it got a wake-up call in 2001 when the authoritative Institute of Medicine declared that our health care system "is currently functioning at far lower levels than it could and should." Fortunately, America's hospitals have taken measures to remedy the solution.