Most Utah County hospitals fare better than others across the state when it comes to several key quality care indicators, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The department runs an online tool for comparing 26 quality-related metrics called Hospital Compare at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. The site indexes information and patient satisfaction survey results from almost 4,000 hospitals nationally, including 37 in the state and five in Utah County. The hope is to educate consumers and prompt hospitals to improve quality, said Mike Fierberg, spokesman for the department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"It is an encouragement to provide better care and do so at the lowest possible cost to everyone," he said. "By making these kinds of metrics transparent, we want to make sure that those who might not have done as well are driven to improve their quality of care."

The most recent numbers -- published in March -- show Mountain View Hospital in Payson, a member of the MountainStar Healthcare Network's family of hospitals, was a leader in the state in one area the department considers crucial: the percentage of people who received antibiotics one hour before surgery. Doing so reduces the risk of infection, and Mountain View succeeded 97 percent of the time -- as opposed to the 79 percent average other Utah hospitals achieved.

"Transparency breeds excellence in health care, and we voluntarily support all efforts aimed at making us better at what we do -- including this Web site," said Kimball Anderson of the rating. Anderson is chief operating officer and vice president of network development for Mountain View and Timpanogos Regional hospitals. "We'll add the valuable feedback it contains to the variety of tools we already use to improve care."

But the picture wasn't all rosy for Mountain View: The hospital also earned last place among county facilities in the percentage of patients who reported always receiving help when they asked for it. It wasn't a great aberration from the norm -- Mountain View's 58 percent was only five points below the state average of 63, and two below the national average of 60 -- but was the only large hospital in the county that suffered a dip.

At both Intermountain Healthcare facilities in Utah County, the helpfulness rating came in right at the state average, while antibiotics numbers were still high. At Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, 91 percent of people received antibiotics before surgery, and at American Fork Hospital that number was 92 percent. Fritz Kron, who oversees quality in the region, said that reflects an internal push over the past few years.

"That's an area that we've been working on," he said. "We sort of felt validated that something that we internally identified as an important quality care step has been recognized by this national program."

The only large hospital in the county to come in under the state average for antibiotics was MountainStar's Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, which was one point off the mark with 62 percent.

More information is available in an ad that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is running today in The Salt Lake Tribune. The full ratings can be found online at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.