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Three-state
Pilot To Test Using Hospital Quality Data to Improve Care
The Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today a pilot program in Maryland, New
York, and Arizona to test the best ways to make hospital performance data from
the national reporting initiative understandable to consumers.
Quality Improvement
Organizations will work with hospitals to develop "a consumer-friendly, Web-based
display of performance data," said the American Health Quality Association,
which represents the organizations. QIOs also will work with hospitals to test
a broader set of performance measures as part of the pilot.
QIOs will be under
contract with CMS over the next three years to help hospitals develop ways to
collect and report data from the reporting initiative, and to work with providers
to improve systems of care based on the performance data. "Our pilot project
will measure the real-world impact of 10 initial quality measures announced today,"
said HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.
CMS also wants
the public to be able to compare hospitals based on what patients say about their
experience at individual facilities. There are now a variety of ways of surveying
those experiences, but the pilot wants to test a standardized way of doing so,
to replace the current hodge-podge.
CMS will require
hospitals to use the standardized survey, and to disclose the data publicly. Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality Acting Director Carolyn Clancy, MD, announced
that the agency would develop the "H-CAHPS" survey instrument to measure
patients' experiences with their hospital care.
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