The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a plan designed to significantly reduce health care-associated infections within five years, reports Health Data Management.

Ontario is now reporting three more patient safety indicators as part of a comprehensive plan for transparency in the province's hospitals. These indicators include bacteraemia infection rates for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) by hospital site. Ontario is also beginning to report hospital standardized mortality ratios (HSMR), calculated annually by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. HSMR is a measure that provides a starting point to assess mortality rates and identify areas for improvement.

The New York State Department of Health has released a new web-based tool that will be used to help plan a high-performing, affordable health care system with primary care as the centerpiece.

Ohio hospitals will be required to report infection information to consumers. The Hospital Measures Advisory Council, created by a 2006 law, recommended hospitals disclose common infections, and whether facilities are vigilant about hand-washing and other practices that reduce infection risk.

KaiserNetwork reports that CMS will post online (12/18) the quality ratings of 16,000 individual nursing homes across the U.S. based on a one- to five-star scale. The ratings are based on data from state inspections, reports on staffing and quality measures. The homes received stars for each category and for overall quality.

The Commonwealth Fund has launched a new Web site that allows health care providers to conduct side-by-side comparisons of 4,500 hospitals nationwide, track performance over time against numerous benchmarks, and download tools to improve health care quality.

Blues giant WellPoint, Indianapolis, is collaborating with four major independent Blues plans on a cost-transparency program, writes Modern Healthcare. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, Premera Blue Cross in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., and Pittsburgh-based Highmark will provide the total estimated cost ranges associated with 39 medical procedures completed at hospitals, outpatient centers and other facilities.

New hospital standardized mortality ratios (HSMRs) for 2007–2008 were released for eligible hospitals and health regions across Canada by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The HSMR is a measure that reflects the number of deaths observed in a hospital relative to what would be expected, based on the average Canadian experience. The measure accounts for several differences in the types of patients a hospital sees, such as the age, sex, diagnoses and admission status of patients.

Thirty-three U.S. hospitals have been named 2008 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, a rating system that provides an up-to-the-minute assessment of a hospital’s quality and safety.

For more details, including the complete list of hospitals, visit the Leapfrog Group website.

The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council has released a new website - My HealthCare Options - to enable residents to compare the cost and quality of care at different hospitals. The Web site will assist consumers compare costs for as many as 40 procedures. They include cardiac surgery or every day events like baby deliveries.

A national report card aimed at calling attention to the support states provide to emergency patients has been released by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

Jeff Rice updates us:

For industry insiders, it is common knowledge that buying healthcare at hospitals’ and doctors’ regular prices is worse than buying a car at full sticker price- many times worse because the "billed charges" are often 2 to 5 times the normal price. A new Web site offers ZIP code-specific fair pricing information for healthcare services including hospitalization, surgery, physician services, labs, imaging, dental and more.

Mike Martin updates us:

The Utah Health Data Committee has released its 12th annual report evaulating quality performance and member satisfaction of selected Utah health plans covering more than 900,000 members across the state. See the full report at: http://health.utah.gov/hda/reports/2008/hmo/index.php

AHA News reports hospitals have steadily improved the quality of care provided to patients over the past six years, according to The Joint Commission's latest annual report on hospital care quality.

Utah Department of Health (UDOH) Health Data Committee (HDC) and Division of Health Care Financing released it's 2008 Performance Report for Utah Commercial HMOs and Medicaid & CHIP Health Plans.

Data in this report comes from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) collected for measurement year 2007 and the 2008 Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS®).

Key Findings in this report indicate that Commercial HMOs are: