Report lists pneumonia death tolls in California hospitals

The third report since 2004 on how California hospitals treat pneumonia found that patients at the worst- performing hospitals were twice as likely to die as those at the best-ranked hospitals. Los Angeles County is in decent shape, with 20 of 92 hospitals surveyed that rated "better than expected" and four that rated "worse than expected." The report looked at 30-day mortality rates for community- acquired pneumonia between January 2003 and November 2005.