Illinois Hospitals, Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care Partner To Put More Information in Consumers’ Hands
September 12, 2005
Oak Brook, Ill, – Beginning September 1, consumers across Illinois were able to see more about how well their local hospitals are performing with new information now available at the Hospital Compare website (also at www.medicare.gov). The consumer-oriented website now reports on steps that hospitals take to prevent surgical infections and reflect up to four quarters of data from 2004. The website has been updated and improved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA).
Three new hospital quality measures were added to the website to accompany 17 existing publicly reported measures dealing with heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. The new measures include one for pneumonia care and two measures for procedures that help prevent surgical infections, a new and significant category of hospital quality measurement.
The two new surgical infection prevention measures are the first of a larger set of patient safety measures that will be collected as part of the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP). The SCIP is designed to improve patient safety and reduce the incidence of postoperative complications by 25 percent by 2010 in U.S. hospitals.
All the measures are available for consumers by visiting www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov or www.medicare.gov and selecting Compare Hospitals in Your Area, or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). Either way, Illinois residents get the information they need to help them make more informed health care decisions.
"Since it first became available five months ago, Hospital Compare has given Medicare beneficiaries throughout Illinois the ability to compare the quality of hospital care in their area and nationwide ,” said Beth Hackman, vice president of the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care (IFQHC). “Now, there is an even greater amount of information available for them to make an informed decision in selecting their health care.”
A quality measure is a formula that converts medical information from patient records into a rate or percentage that shows how well a hospital cares for its patients.
The twenty measures now posted on Hospital Compare are:
Heart Attack (Acute Myocardial Infarction or AMI)
- Aspirin at arrival
- Aspirin at discharge
- ACE Inhibitor for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction
- Beta Blocker at arrival
- Beta Blocker at discharge
- Thrombolytic agent received within 30 minutes of hospital arrival
- Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) received within 120 minutes of hospital arrival
- Adult smoking cessation advice/counseling
- Assessment of Left Ventricular Function
- ACE Inhibitor for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction
- Discharge Instructions
- Adult smoking cessation advice/counseling
- Oxygenation Assessment
- Initial Antibiotic Timing
- Pneumococcal Vaccination Status
- Blood culture performed prior to first antibiotic received in hospital
- Adult smoking cessation advice/counseling
- Appropriate Initial Antibiotic Selection*
Surgical Infection Prevention
- Prophylactic Antibiotic Received Within 1 Hour Prior to Surgical Incision*
- Prophylactic Antibiotics Discontinued Within 24 Hours After Surgery End Time*
Note: * denotes measure displayed for the first time in September 2005
Media Contacts:
Lisa Bevilacqua - (630) 928-5819
lbevilacqua@ilqio.sdps.org
Kathy Maddock - (217) 553-7303
cgyure@midwest.net
This material was prepared by the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a department of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. IL-8SOW-HP-22-08/05