About Health Transparency

The latest quality data update has been published to CMS Hospital Compare as follows:

Process of care measures reporting data from July 1, 2010 through June 31, 2011 for all measures except: for 2 measures:

1. Statin Prescribed at Discharge -  reporting data for January 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011
2. PN 7 – Pneumonia Patients Assessed and Given Influenza Vaccination:  reporting data for October 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011

Patient experience data (HCAHPS) has also been updated, reporting data from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011
Reporting time periods for the following measure sets remains unchanged from previous data refresh on CMS Hospital Compare:

• Mortality and readmissions measures, reporting data from July 1st, 2007 through June 30th, 2010
• Medicare number of cases measures, reporting from October 1, 2009 through September 31, 2010
• Patient safety and hospital acquired conditions measures, reporting from October 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010
• Hospital acquired infection measure – Central Line Bloodstream Infections – reporting data from January 1, 2011 through March 31, 2011)

By late 2012, preliminary reports will be released from Colorado’s new All Payer Claims Database (APCD). This statewide warehouse will securely compile de-identified claims data from private insurance carriers, Medicaid and Medicare to provide comprehensive pictures of health care costs and utilization in the state of Colorado. Colorado’s legislators created the APCD in 2010. The Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has responsibility for administering the database. Other states have APCDs available can be viewed on the APCD Council Website.

From The Commonwealth Fund: Prices for health care services vary significantly among providers, even for common procedures, and it’s often difficult for patients to determine their out-of-pocket costs before receiving care. Some consumer advocates, employers, and health plans are pushing for greater reporting of the prices of health care services as a way to encourage consumers to choose low-cost, high-quality providers and to promote competition based on the value of care. In spite of the challenges, price transparency may be spurred by the growing number of health care consumers who are being required to pay a larger share of their medical bills.  Read more

Revenue-driven surgery and poor planning drive some surgical patients home too early, concludes a pair of logistical studies conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.  The studies show a correlation between readmission rates and how full the hospital was at the time of discharge, suggesting that patients went home before they were healthy enough.  The researchers recommend better planning and other logistical solutions to avoid these problems.

Read more: The Impact of hospital utilization on patient readmission rates, Health Care Management Science:

Kaiser Health News (KHN) writes of how the nation’s best-regarded hospitals rate in terms of their patients’ Medicare spending. KHN looked at the 16 hospitals that U.S. News includes in its widely followed “Best Hospitals’ Honor Roll,” which is calculated based on a mix of quality indicators and reputation surveys. (One hospital, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, was omitted because Medicare didn’t provide figures for Maryland hospitals.)

As a group, the average cost to Medicare for a patient at a U.S. News top hospital was $17,808, or 1 percent below the national median spending of $17,988. The least expensive of these hospitals had patients who, on average, cost Medicare 5 percent below the median (represented as a ratio of 0.95). The most expensive hospital had patients who, on average, cost Medicare 3 percent above the median (1.03).

Read full news item

According to new research conducted by Cardiac Data Solutions, patients randomly choosing a hospital in one of the 10 best states had a 1 in 3 chance of picking a hospital with better than average performance for both CABG and PCI. On the other hand, patients in four of the 10 worst states had no chance of going to a hospital that was better than average for both procedures.

The research, which evaluated data on nearly 320,000 Medicare beneficiaries undergoing either CABG or PCI in more than 700 US hospitals from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010, was presented at American Heart Association Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.

Only two states, Massachusetts and Maryland, had all of their hospitals rank above average for both procedures. Hospitals in seven of the top 10 ranked states saved more lives performing PCI than CABG. In contrast, hospitals in six of the 10 worst performing states lost more lives performing PCI than CABG surgery. A total of four states (Hawaii, North Dakota, Nevada and Oklahoma) had all of their hospitals rank below average for both procedures.

Read full study:  Statewide Hospital Performance on Total Lives-Saved during Coronary Revascularization among Medicare Beneficiaries in Fiscal Years 2010

http://dearcaringstaff.com/ to download a five point PDF note you can leave at your bedside.

FROM THE SITE: “This document helps people to get better care when staying in a hospital. Just download and print it out, then post it in a prominent location in your hospital room.

It is a simple document that anybody can use when staying in a hospital, to help get better care from doctors, nurses, and other caregivers. It articulates 5 simple points that remind folks to be kind, patient, and gentle.

Sure, these reminders might seem obvious. But given the tremendous load that many caregivers are under, it can help to provide a gentle reminder.”

A study published in Health Affairs showed substantial variations across the participating health care organizations in surgery times, hospital lengths-of-stay, discharge dispositions, and in-hospital complication rates.  Members of a consortium of leading US health care systems, known as the High Value Healthcare Collaborative, used administrative data to examine differences in their delivery of primary total knee replacement. The goal was to identify opportunities to improve health care value by increasing the quality and reducing the cost of that procedure. The study showed substantial variations across the participating health care organizations in surgery times, hospital lengths-of-stay, discharge dispositions, and in-hospital complication rates. The study also revealed that higher surgeon caseloads were associated with shorter lengths-of-stay and operating time, as well as fewer in-hospital complications. These findings led the consortium to test more coordinated management for medically complex patients, more use of dedicated teams, and a process to improve the management of patients’ expectations. These innovations are now being tried by the consortium’s members to evaluate whether they increase health care value.

Read full study: A Collaborative Of Leading Health Systems Finds Wide Variations In Total Knee Replacement Delivery And Takes Steps To Improve Value