Healthy respect: a long stay in the medical wards gave me a speck of credibility in rating hospitals.

• Author: Mildenberg, David
• Position: UP FRONT

Years of analyzing government reports and industry surveys have given our magazine some expertise on judging the quality of North Carolina's hospitals, showcased this month starting on page 53. Congratulations to Duke University and Mission hospitals for topping this year's list. It's totally quantitative, and we don't insert personal bias into the rankings.

But like a lot of aging people, I consider myself an industry expert. A few lucky folks have only positive encounters with hospitals, such as a joyous day or two spent celebrating a birth. More of us visit hospitals at difficult times, ranging from a few hours at the emergency room, a day or two before a loved one dies, or weeks or months of care and healing.

Five years ago this month, I drew an unlucky straw, suffering an abdominal aneurysm for unknown reasons, then spent six weeks in an Austin, Texas, hospital, followed by a couple of weeks in a rehab center. While heavily drugged for most of my stay, the experience provided more insight into health care than I ever hoped for, mostly incredibly positive. The nurses and orderlies who do 90% of the difficult work at hospitals are saints. Surgeon Dean Kocay, who dealt with my mess, saved my life. The compassion shown by family, friends and my faith community was integral to my recovery.

That's the important, unquantifiable stuff that doesn't get covered in hospital ratings. Most people come away from personal medical wars with great respect for caregivers, though problems develop in rare cases at all hospitals, whether ranked first or last.

I also learned about the business side of hospitals, including an unmistakable truth: If you are going to get really sick, make sure you work for a company with great insurance. My bills topped $1 million, though my then-employer paid less because of contracts that big companies can negotiate with insurers. My out-of-pocket cost was less than $10,000.

Unfortunately, many don't have great insurance provided by well-heeled, compassionate companies...