The teams of NFC and AFC North may be mediocre at best, but when it comes to the region's hospitals, they're among the best in the nation, according to a study released this week.

Looking at the risk-adjusted ratio of observed vs. expected mortality rate for 17 procedures, the 11th annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study found that hospitals in East North Central region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) had the lowest overall risk-adjusted death rates. The East North Central region also had the highest percentage of best-performing hospitals, 26 percent. Meanwhile, hospitals in the East South Central region (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee) had the highest overall risk-adjusted death rates.

The study notes that compared to last year's survey, the difference between the best performing hospitals and worst has narrowed. That's good. Still, the authors argue that if every hospital performed at the level of the top-rated hospitals 237,420 deaths could have potentially been prevented. More than half of those deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure, and respiratory failure.

The study provides further evidence of the dramatic variation in the quality of health care delivered across the U.S. The results become even more dramatic when you consider the large geographic variation in health costs. Such variation would be understandable, if it were associated with better health outcomes, but as researchers at the Dartmouth Atlas have carefully documented time and time again, it is not. In fact, in many cases, more health care (and health care spending) is associated with worse outcomes. Quality is a reform issue for all Americans. By trying to improve outcomes—whether it's with health IT, primary care, patient safety initiatives, or any of number of potential innovations—we can also lower costs. And that's something even fans of the 0-5 Detroit Lions could cheer.