The Massachusetts Hospital Association this week began using its Patients First Web site to post the rates of pressure ulcers, or bed sores, at hospitals statewide, reports iHealthbeat. As previously blogged, the Web site already includes data on patient falls at hospitals and nurse staffing plans.
The hospital group gathered data from the state's 80 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term acute hospitals during two days in March and September 2007. The reports then were divided by the units where patients were treated. The hospital rates are compared with state averages for hospitals of similar size and type.
The Massachusetts Hospital Association released this new data as part of an ongoing effort to increase transparency about hospital care in the Commonwealth. The public release of this data makes Massachusetts hospitals among the first in the nation to voluntarily report such data.
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AHIP HI-WIRE Connection: In an effort to increase transparency, the Massachusetts Hospital Association chose 'preventing pressure ulcers' as its most recent measure of quality, after reporting on another indicator -- patient falls -- in October. Each hospital's results are posted on the trade group's Patients First Web site (www.patientsfirstma.org).
The voluntary effort fits into the trend toward more public reporting of how well hospitals perform, from Medicare's mandatory site comparing hospitals on 24 core measures to compulsory state data on cardiac surgery and catheterization.
When the counts were done, the rates of pressure ulcers in Central Massachusetts hospitals did not show extremes. Hospitals were broken down by units -- intensive care, "step-down," medical, surgical, medical/surgical -- and compared to hospitals of similar size and function, such as acute care, rehab or long-term acute care. The results are displayed in bar charts, with one color for the hospital unit and another for the state average.
Comparing one hospital to another is not easy to do, which is what MHA intended. The purpose of the site is to help hospitals compare themselves over time.
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