Healthgrades released its American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Report to the Nation. The report demonstrates that individuals are far more likely to die or suffer complications at hospitals receiving the lowest Healthgrades rating. The report, which is a comprehensive analysis of three years of Medicare outcomes data of 40 million patient records from 4,500 hospitals nationwide, shows that a patient’s chance of suffering a complication – or even death – is substantially greater at hospitals receiving Healthgrades one star rating when compared to hospitals receiving a five star rating. In fact, the variation in outcomes differs widely between hospitals within the same community. For example, Healthgrades evaluated 33 hospitals in Atlanta and found that stroke mortality rates were 17 times higher in hospitals receiving one star versus hospitals receiving five stars.