No longer do patients need to rely on advertising claims, comments from neighbors or time-honored reputation when it comes to a hospital’s quality of care.

A few computer clicks can help ease a consumer’s informational pain.

Results of voluminous consumer surveys and pricing and treatment data compiled for the federal government now are available at a single Web site: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

The site provides information on more than 2,500 hospitals across the country, including Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The database allows people to compare results from among as many as three hospitals at the same time, side by side.

The information runs from medical technicalities to personal impressions to costs. Among the data available:

¢ 80 percent of patients say that their LMH nurses always communicated well; 55 percent report that the area around their rooms always was quiet at night; and 76 percent say they definitely would recommend the hospital to others.

¢ 100 percent of heart-attack patients at LMH were given aspirin upon arrival; and 99 percent of pneumonia patients were given the most appropriate initial antibiotics.

¢ The average Medicare payment to the hospital for angioplasty procedures and “insertion of drug-coated stent into heart artery” is $14,011.

Such information is intended to help consumers make informed choices about where they receive their health care services, said Mike Leavitt, U.S. secretary for Health and Human Services.

The Web site, he said, is part of an ongoing effort to “drive quality up and the cost down.”