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Hospital Compare - FAQs:
To find a doctor that accepts Medicare and Medicaid payments, you may want to visit the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services' Physician Compare. You can search by State, County, City, Zip Code, and doctor's name. This tool will provide you with a list of physicians in the specialty and geographic area you specify, along with detailed physician profiles, maps and driving directions.
Hospital Compare (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) provides information about Medicare participating hospitals that compare quality measures of Heart Attack (AMI), Heart Failure Care, and Pneumonia Care.
There are many other directories that will help you find health professionals, services, and facilities, some of which may serve Medicare or Medicaid payments. A complete list of these directories is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directories.html
Hospitals that treat sicker patients do not necessarily have higher death rates. All rates have been adjusted to account for differences in patient's health status before they were hospitalized. Sicker patient's who have more health problems may be more at risk to die than healthier patients. Sicker people may also need more specialized care, which may not be available at all hospitals.
It is important to take into account these issues before any ratings are posted. A complex statistical model is used to calculate the risk-adjustment rate which "levels the playing field" by accounting for health risks which are present before the patient actually enters the hospital.
The mortality categories show how individual hospital's risk-adjusted 30-day death rates compare to the national rate. A hospital's performance is reported as
- Better Than The US National Rate,
- No Different Than The US National Rate, or
- Worse Than The US National Rate.
Hospitals are only identified as better or worse than the U.S. national mortality rate if the 95% interval estimate for their risk-standardized mortality rate (RSMR) is completely above or below the U.S. national rate.
Better Than The US National Rate means the hospital has a 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate lower than the US national rate.
Worse Than The US National Rate means the hospital has a 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate higher than the U.S. National Rate.
No Different Than The US National Rate means there is no significant difference between the 30-day risk-adjusted death (mortality) rate and the U.S. National Rate.
Hospital Compare offers the consumer information on hospitals performance on measures of quality. Some information is based on how well hospitals provided recommended and appropriate care to patients being treated for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, or who were receiving surgical care. These types of measures are called process measures. Another type of measure of the quality of care provided by a hospital is the outcome of that care. Hospital Compare began posting Adjusted Death (Mortality) Rates associated with hospitalizations for heart attack and heart failure in June 2007. In July of 2010 Hospital Compare added Imaging Efficiency Measures and Outpatient Measures. The purpose of these measures is to promote high-quality efficient care.
The website can be accessed by going directly to http://www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov or using the link in the http://www.Medicare.gov website. Once on the Hospital Compare site, users can find hospitals by:
- proximity to a city or ZIP code;
- specific state or county; and
- name.
After selecting the hospital or hospitals of interest, users can select the information about hospitals that they would like to see.
It is important to remember the information posted on this Web site should not be used as a decision making tool alone without consulting with your Doctor and your family regarding your medical care.
In addition to the national average, the Hospital Compare Web site also presents the score representing the performance of the top 10 percent of all hospitals reporting. Often those top hospitals achieve the top score ('100%') on the measure, which means all the top hospitals provide the recommended treatment to their patients every time it is appropriate to do so.
The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) is a public-private collaborative that has representation of hospitals and clinicians, consumer groups, purchasers, accrediting bodies and government agencies.
Its members include:
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AARP
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AFL-CIO
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HHS/AHRQ)
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America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
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American Hospital Association (AHA)
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American Medical Association (AMA)
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American Nurses Association (ANA)
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Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (HHS/CMS)
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Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project (CPDP)
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Federation of American Hospitals (FAH)
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General Electric Company (GE)
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The Joint Commission
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National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI)
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National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH)
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National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH)
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National Quality Forum (NQF)
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U. S. Chamber of Commerce
This is a known bug in certain versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. We are investigating this bug; however, in the interim, here are some ways to get the results to display:
1. Use a browser other than Internet Explorer. Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, and Opera do not have this blank page bug.
2. Configure your scripting settings in Internet Explorer. Please use the detailed instructions below depending on your version of Internet Explorer and your operating system.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x and 6.x (Windows)
1. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu.
2. Click the Security tab.
3. Click Custom Level in Security Level for this Zone.
4. Scroll down to Scripting, near the bottom of the list.
5. Under Active Scripting, choose Disable.
6. Click OK to leave Security Settings. Click OK to leave Internet Options.
7. Close all the browser windows and re-launch the browser so that setting can take an effect.
8. Enable JavaScript once you are done with your browsing experience.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x (Macintosh)
1. Choose Preferences under the Explorer menu.
2. Click Web Content under Web Browser.
3. In Active Content, uncheck the box next to Enable scripting.
4. Enable JavaScript once you are done with your browsing experience.
Hospital Compare is designed to help consumers, patients, their loved ones to make better healthcare decisions. The information on the Web site should be used to:
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Talk to your doctor and other health care providers about the quality of care at hospitals. Some hospitals have more experience or better results treating certain conditions or performing certain procedures. Ask your doctor or health care provider which hospital has the best care and results for your condition. Ask why he or she prefers to use that hospital.
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If your physician is referring you for surgery, ask how well the hospital performs your kind of surgery, as well as about the surgeon who may work with you, and how many surgeries they perform each year. Your physician will want you to be confident about all of your health care decisions.
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Talk to your doctor or health care provider about other patients' experiences with the hospital. Some hospitals survey their patients in regards to hospital satisfaction. Try to get as much information as you are able about what other patients think of the care at the hospital.
- Look at the hospital information on this Web site, as well as other quality information and talk to your doctor about any questions or concerns you have.
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- Ask family or friends about their hospital experiences. Look on the Web site for the Hospital Checklist. It can help you ask important questions.
How we measure 'good care' changes as the experts learn more from research. The change in the quality measures for the treatment of heart attack and heart failure for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction (LVSD) is a change to keep quality measures up-to-date with the most recent evidence about effective treatments.
ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors and ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers) are medicines used to treat patients with heart failure, and are particularly beneficial for those patients with heart failure or who have had a heart attack and who have decreased function of the left side of the heart (with LVSD). Early treatment with ACE inhibitors and ARBs for patients who have heart failure symptoms or decreased heart function after a heart attack can also reduce risk of death from future heart attacks. ACE inhibitors and ARBs work by limiting the effects of a hormone that narrows blood vessels, and may thus lower blood pressure and reduce the work the heart has to perform. Since the ways in which these two kinds of drugs work are different and may have different side effects, your doctor will decide which drug is most appropriate for you. If you have a heart attack and/or heart failure, and you have decreased heart function, you should get a prescription for ACE inhibitors or ARBs before you leave the hospital. The rates posted on Hospital Compare in December 2005 reflect how well hospitals provide both of these treatments.
For more specific information about the changes, please see below:
The two quality measures that assess the use of ACE-inhibitors for patients with heart failure or who have had a heart attack have been changed to acknowledge the evolving evidence from recent clinical trials. Although many experts believe that ACE inhibitors should remain the first-line method of treating patients with heart failure, the accumulating evidence of therapeutic benefit indicates that ARBs are an acceptable alternative to ACE inhibitors.
The measures reported on Hospital Compare, beginning with the rates posted in December 2005, assess treatment with either of the two medication classes ??? ACE-inhibitors or ARBs -- in patients with heart failure or after an acute heart attack who have impairments in the contractile function of the left side of the heart. All such patients should be treated with either an ACE-inhibitor or an ARB unless there is documentation of a specific reason not to use both classes of drugs.
