One of the data sets issued by Medicare cuts to the chase.

It’s about mortality.

Death rates to the rest of us.

When I was managing state employee benefits (my consolation prize after running against Roland Burris for State Comptroller in 1982), hospitals were complaining that comparing death rates wasn’t fair because some hospitals, especially the teaching hospitals, had sicker patients to begin with.

I guess that compison problem has apparently been overcome. Either that or Medicare doesn’t care.

Good Shepherd is rated as “Better than national rates,” while Woodstock and McHenry rank as “No different from U.S. National Rate” concerning death rates for heart attack patients.

The same difference shows up for heart failure as far as death rates go.

For pneumonia, however, McHenry’s, Woodstock’s and Barrington’s hospitals are near the national average.