Other Sources of Health Care Quality Information

Several industry and government organizations provide information about health care quality and some have proprietary reporting tools.  The information these organizations provide can help you make informed, accurate decisions about health care quality. 

Warning: Different agencies and consumer reporting sites use different definitions, data sets, and time periods and have different (or nonexistent) ways of normalizing data for comparisons (severity adjustments). 

Therefore, comparisons between sources are not “apples to apples” and comparisons within a single source have to be carefully analyzed before accurate conclusions can be made (read the fine print!).

Links:

The Joint Commission

The Joint Commission and CMS have developed a core set of research-based quality indicators which are being used across the nation.  They have established standardized measures of quality in selected patient populations including acute myocardial infarction (AMI), community acquired pneumonia (CAP), congestive heart failure (CHF), pregnancy and related conditions and surgical procedures.  Carle is currently participating in AMI, CAP and CHF.

          Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Carle voluntarily submits data to the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, which will lead to the display of performance measures on the CMS web site.  To date 1,809 hospitals have volunteered to participate -- data for display are available from only 415 of the 1,809 hospitals.  The most recent reporting update was February 2004. 

          American Hospital Association (AHA)

          Healthgrades

Healthgrades is a private company using Med Par (Medicare) public data and proprietary severity adjustment methodology to rank organizations on a scale of 1-5 "stars" with 5 being excellent. This Med Par data is 2-3 years old before it is released and Healthgrades reports a 3-year aggregate.  Healthgrades is not a true reflection of current practices and its severity adjustment methodology can not be reproduced.  Med Par includes only Medicare patients who are over 65 years old and who are cared for in the inpatient setting only.

          National Association for Healthcare Quality

          Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)

          Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care

          Illinois Department of Public Health

          The Leapfrog Group

Leapfrog, a coalition of Fortune 500 companies who are major purchasers of healthcare contracts, developed a public reporting initiative based on volumes and mortality. Carle has been monitoring and comparing performance in the Leapfrog focus areas for some time.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality