CMS Updates Hospital Results for Patients and Caregivers

On July 27th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the results for the following eighteen measures of hospital quality on its patient-oriented website, Hospital Compare (www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html):

Hospital Compare is CMS’s patient-oriented website that offers a side-by-side comparison of hospital results for any three hospitals in the country. Patients and caregivers can use this website to see how hospitals in their area perform by reviewing measures of deaths, unplanned readmissions, or complications following a hospital stay. For example, consumers can identify how hospitals in their area compare to each other, and to the nation as a whole, on readmission rates for patients treated for a heart attack. CMS also includes the results from payment measures on Hospital Compare to help consumers assess the value of care at a particular hospital. Patients can do this by considering the payment results alongside results for outcome measures, such as death within 30 days after a hospital stay for heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia.

One of CMS’s goals is to improve healthcare for patients. CMS evaluates hospitals’ quality of care and gives incentives to hospitals to make improvements that can impact patients’ wellbeing. Publicly reporting patient outcomes is an essential part of CMS’s strategy to incentivize improvements in healthcare.

Be sure to visit Hospital Compare to see your hospital’s results on these important outcome and payment measures! Enter your zip code, select a hospital (or hospitals) to compare, and view the Readmissions and Deaths tab, the Complications tab or the Payment and Value of Care tab to see the updated results.