IMPORTANT NEW DATA ADDED TO HEALTHCARE.GOV
TO HELP AMERICANS UNDERSTAND THE STATE OF QUALITY AT AMERICA'S HOSPITALS
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare Tool
Compares Outpatient Care and Inpatient Mortality and
Readmissions at More Than 4,700 Hospitals Across the Nation
Important new information about the quality of care available in
America's outpatient and emergency departments, including how well
hospitals care for patients with heart attacks and protect outpatients
from surgical infections was added to the new HHS website
HealthCare.gov. The information can be found as part of the Compare Care
Quality link on the front page of the new site,
http://www.healthcare.gov/ <http://www.healthcare.gov/> It can also
be found on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Hospital
Compare website, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/
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www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/> .
"The more information consumers and patients have, the better the
options and choices are for them when it comes to their health care.
HealthCare.gov is designed to put the power of information at the
fingertips of Americans and our quality compare tools are a critical
part of this new website," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "This
new update to CMS' Hospital Compare feature will help patients and their
families better compare quality at America's hospitals. And thanks to
this new update this year, for the first time, Medicare patients can
see how efficiently facilities use certain types of imaging equipment
and keep them safe from exposure to potentially harmful radiation that
may not be necessary."
"By reporting data on services provided in hospital
settings like imaging on Hospital Compare, we can highlight the
importance of this issue for patients and their families," said Acting
CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. "For some time, Medicare
beneficiaries have had access to reasonable and necessary imaging
technologies, which have revolutionized how well doctors and patients
diagnose and treat a host of diseases. But by adding information to the
website today, we can help patients and their families to understand the
risks associated with these technologies and talk with their doctors
about which hospitals are most likely to help patients reduce those
risks."
On average, 1 in 3 Medicare beneficiaries receive magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) of their lower back when they complain of pain, rather
than trying more recommended - and potentially safer - treatment first,
such as physical therapy. While most practitioners use imaging
technology, such as MRI, safely and effectively to diagnose or treat
disease, studies show that overusing MRIs for lower back pain could
cause patients unnecessary stress, risk, and cost. In other cases, such
as computed tomography (CT) scans, imaging technology exposes patients
to the radiation used to produce these images, which means that overuse
could harm patients' health. The data published on Hospital Compare for
these new imaging measures are based on claims for Medicare patients
only.
The updated information on HealthCare.gov's Hospital Compare includes
data on the rates of outpatient MRIs for low back pain, outpatient
re-tests after a screening mammogram, as well as two ratios that explain
how frequently outpatient departments gave patients "double" computed
tomography (CT) scans when a single scan may be all that is needed.
Hospital Compare also includes new measures that show whether
outpatients who are treated for suspected heart attacks receive proven
therapies that reduce mortality such as an aspirin at arrival, and how
well outpatient surgical patients are protected from infection.
Previously, Hospital Compare had provided data only about the quality of
care provided to hospital inpatients.
"Adding outpatient quality measures to Hospital Compare will give
consumers a more complete picture of the quality of care available at
local hospitals," said Barry M. Straube, M.D., CMS chief medical officer
and director of the Agency's Office of Clinical Standards & Quality.
"In particular, the heart attack and surgical care outpatient measures
can be viewed alongside of the inpatient data we already report for
these conditions, thus providing a comprehensive look at what facilities
in your area are doing to provide high-quality, high-value care."
In addition to outpatient care measures, CMS has updated data for
outcomes of inpatient hospital care. This update includes new
thirty-day mortality rates and thirty-day readmissions rates for
inpatients admitted with heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.
These rates encompass three full years of claims data (from July 1,
2006, to June 30, 2009).
This year, national thirty-day mortality rates for heart attack have
continued to decline, falling by 0.4 percent from the 2005-2008 rate of
16.6 percent to 16.2 percent. Mortality rates for heart failure and
pneumonia readmissions stayed steady at 11.2 and 11.6 percent,
respectively.
Also this year, national thirty-day readmissions rates for heart attack,
heart failure, and pneumonia did not show remarkable changes from their
2005-2008 rates. The 2006-2009 rates for these three conditions are
19.9 percent, 24.7 percent, and 18.3 percent, respectively. Both sets of
inpatient measures are risk-adjusted and take into account previous
health problems to "level the playing field" among hospitals and to help
ensure accuracy in performance reporting.
The HealthCare.gov Hospital Compare tool will show whether a hospital's
mortality or readmissions rate is "Better than," "No different from," or
"Worse than" the U.S. national rate. This information includes each
hospital's risk-standardized mortality rate (RSMR), an estimate of the
rate's certainty (also known as the interval estimate), and the number
of eligible cases for each hospital. By posting hospital RSMRs,
interval estimates, and the number of eligible cases, CMS is giving
consumers and communities additional insight into the performance of
their local hospitals in hopes that this will prompt all hospitals to
work toward achieving the level of the top-performing hospitals in the
country.
Hospital Compare also includes 10 measures that capture patient
satisfaction with hospital care. After two years of reporting these
satisfaction measures, hospitals have shown modest but meaningful
improvement on most satisfaction measures. The degree of this
improvement has been relatively uniform across most measures and
hospitals.
Hospital Compare is rounded out with 25 process of care measures and
three children's asthma care measures. The site also features
information about the volume of certain hospital procedures performed
and conditions treated for Medicare patients and what Medicare pays for
those services.
The information contained on HealthCare.gov and Hospital Compare is
available for consumers to use in making health care decisions.
However, consumers should gather information from multiple sources when
choosing a hospital. For example, patients and caregivers could use the
website to help them discuss plans of care with their trusted health
care providers. In an emergency situation, patients should always go to
the nearest, most easily accessible facility.
Consumers have relied on Hospital Compare since 2005 to provide
information about the quality of care provided in over 4,700 of
America's acute-care, critical access and children's hospitals.
Also CMS Issued a Fact Sheet (7/7) with additional details at:
http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp
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www.cms.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp>
The information can be found as part of the Compare Care Quality link on
the front page of the new site,
http://www.healthcare.gov/compare/index.html
<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTg5M
zYwMCZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC04OTM2MDAmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xM
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Wl0aEBjbXMuaGhzLmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&104&&&http
://www.healthcare.gov/compare/index.html> . It can also be found on the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Hospital Compare
website, www.hospitalcompare.gov
<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTg5M
zYwMCZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC04OTM2MDAmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xM
jc2NTcxNDgyJmVtYWlsaWQ9bGlzYS5zbWl0aEBjbXMuaGhzLmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9bGlzYS5zb
Wl0aEBjbXMuaGhzLmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&105&&&http
://www.hospitalcompare.gov/> .
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