The view of a prestigious Ohio teaching hospital toward Medicare's first-ever public release of patient-safety data in medical facilities across the country is far from favorable.

That is understandable, given a mention of the hospital -- the Cleveland Clinic -- as a place where a comparatively high level of medical malpractice may be contributing to an undue rate of serious blood clots in patients, as well as higher-than-average rates of lacerations and accidental tears.

Medicare is releasing the information pursuant to a 2010 federal mandate to render material changes in national health care delivery and outcomes. Government officials believe that the wide dissemination of such information -- which includes things such as the rate of hospital-acquired infections and the degree to which patients suffer preventable complications necessitating readmission -- will help patients better determine where to go for care, how to obtain it at a fair price and how to improve their chances of a successful treatment outcome.

Many health experts and a number of medical facilities are lauding the disclosures, but some hospital administrators are far from happy.

Teaching hospitals, especially, cite discontent with the methodology and its results. That is not surprising, given a Kaiser Health assessment concluding that such facilities have patient complications at a rate almost 10 times higher than other hospitals.

The government says that its process and the factors it examines are fair and useful.

That contrasts starkly to the view of Cleveland Clinic administrators. One says that the report documents "almost to a fault, things that are incidental to the case."

Source: Washington Post, "Medicare study finds teaching hospitals have higher risk of complications; findings disputed," Jordan Rau, Feb. 12, 2012