New Hospital Compare Measures Help Fill Out the Performance Picture
<p>The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun publishing data on new quality and safety measures that will provide a more complete picture of hospital care. The data, which look at hospital-acquired infections, certain surgical complications, and avoidable deaths, are being reported on the CMS Web site Hospital Compare.</p>
<p>In a new post on <a href="/blog/2011/new-hospital-compare-measures-help-fill-out-performance-picture">The Commonwealth Fund Blog</a>, Anne-Marie J. Audet, M.D., and Shreya Patel, M.P.H., say the new measures will lead to a healthy process of public vetting and debate. "As the data are released, many eyes will be looking at them, probing their implications, comparing, and conducting root-cause analyses," they say. "This attention can only lead to improvement—both in the measures themselves and in the care delivered."</p>
<p>While many measures are reported only for Medicare beneficiaries receiving care in hospitals, Audet and Patel call for public reporting that represents all patients, including those with private coverage or Medicaid and those treated in other care settings.</p>