A state law in Ohio (2006)requires hospitals to provide quality and pricing information to the Ohio Department of Health. The DOH plan to release a consumer-friendly Web site, called Ohio Hospital Compare (located on www.odh.ohio.gov), with this information on Jan 1, 2010.
The site will feature more than 100 quality measures, including mortality and infection rates and how often specific medical procedures are performed at a hospital.
WhyNotTheBest.org has been updated with new types of hospital performance data through an improved comparison tool. Users can search for hospitals by name, region, and various characteristics, including health system and hospital referral region; choose from an expanded list of relevant benchmarks; and save their performance reports for future visits.
In a move to provide more information to Illinoisans trying to decide where to receive medical care, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Damon T. Arnold today announced the launch of the Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care Web site. The Hospital Report Card Act requires all Illinois hospitals to report nurse staffing, infection prevention measures and hospital acquired infections data to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
The New Jersey state Department of Health and Senior Services released its sixth annual report on hospital quality - the New Jersey 2009 Hospital Performance Report. The report includes two additional measures for surgical care infection prevention in addition to performance measures for heart attack, pneumonia, and congestive heart failure.The report also includes 12 new measures for patient safety, as required by Senate Bill No. 2471. The new measures show how well hospitals are doing preventing specific medical errors.
The most recent quarterly data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been added to WhyNotTheBest.org, including performance reports on the Hospital Quality Alliance measures, which gauge how often hospitals delivered recommended care processes for the following conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care improvement (25 measures in all). In addition, updated performance reports have been added for the 10 measures from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS).
Data on the CMS Hospital Compare Web site has been updated to report the following:
The Office of Health Care Statistics at the Utah Department of Health has released its 2009 Utah Hospital Consumer Satisfaction Report
WhyNotTheBest.org has been updated with the latest performance data on the process-of-care and hospital patient experience measures that are publicly reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Users of the site can 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.
The Chicago Tribune writes: This fall Illinois will start publishing data about hospitals' performance on a public Web site, according to officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Transylvania Regional Hospital, based in North Carolina, will commence publishing quality outcome data on its Web site writes Citizen Times.com.
The hospital will post its scores from several sources including the Hospital Quality Alliance and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. The information on the Web site also includes definitions and explinations about specific quality measures that hospitals are rated on.
The anticipated refresh of data to CMS Hospital Compare is July 9th. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to post publicly for the first time on the Hospital Compare Web site, information regarding 30-day readmission rates for Medicare patients experiencing heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia.
Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) has created myhospitalcare.ca - a new website promoting better public access to hospital performance information. The site allows users to learn more about how hospitals are performing by location, type of care, for one of 39 different indicators.
The About Health Satisfaction Web site (AboutHealthSatisfaction.org), which utilizes HCAHPS survey results, has been updated with the latest quarterly HCAHPS survey results from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The updated data have been added for the 10 measures for the survey responses from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data has been updated onto the abouthealthsatisfaction Web site today.
This Web site utilizes HCAHPS survey results, helping consumers to make fair and objective comparisons between hospitals, based on patients' feedback.
The HCAHPS survey consists of 10 measures:
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
Do you have some health care transparency news you want to share? Send it to us! Do you publish a health care report card? Let us know when you update your report.
Jaz-Michael King directs health care transparency at IPRO, a non-profit health care quality improvement organization. This blog is updated by Jaz and members of the transparency team. If you would like help with your transparency efforts, please visit IPRO eServices.
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