Mar 19, 2008 4:00 pm US/Eastern
Pennsylvania Hospital Ratings Hit The 'Net
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
For
the first time, it takes only a couple of mouse clicks to access information on
how Pennsylvania
hospitals stack up against each other.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance
is starting a new Web site—www.phcqa.org—that has
quality reports that compare performance and outcomes of all 162 primary acute
care hospitals in the state.
"While hospital quality data has become more
available on the Internet, consumers are at a disadvantage when they must
search out multiple sites, each with its own measurement standards," said Gerald
Miller, retired CEO of Crozer-Keystone Health System. Miller is chairman of the
alliance, a consortium of Pennsylvania
hospitals, hospital associations, insurers and the Pennsylvania Medical
Society.
Users of the Web site can look up hospitals
with the best (and worst) track records for treating heart attacks, heart
failure, pneumonia, or preventing certain hospital-acquired infections during a
certain year. Those four categories were the first chosen, in part, because
they are ailments among the most common and most costly for hospitals, the
group said.
The site allows users to compare one hospital
to another, or to state and national averages for quality of care in those categories.
It can also search hospitals by ZIP code, county or name.
Information currently on the site generally
goes back two years from the most recent data available, but the site will be
updated quarterly as fresh statistics are released, said Erik Muther, executive
director of the alliance.
Pennsylvania
is one of about eight to 10 states with such sites, he said.
The goal was to provide Pennsylvanians with a
resource that helps them make decisions with their doctor on where they will
get the best care. Such transparency also makes health care providers more
competitive, leading to better quality and lower costs, the group said.
"This site is doing a lot of the homework
already that an individual might have to do by visiting a half dozen Web sites,"
alliance spokesman Richard Wells said.
A growing number of states, as well as public
and private agencies, are looking at how to take existing medical information and
package it in a user-friendly way, said Denise Love, executive director of the
National Association of Health Data Organizations in Salt Lake City.
"It's a positive trend," she said. "The
consumer just hasn't been in the loop."
The Pennsylvania
reports contain data from three sources: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid; the
Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council; and the Joint Commission, an
independent organization that accredits most of the nation's hospitals.
"All the stakeholders—hospitals, insurers,
policy makers, the Pennsylvania
Medical Society—looked at these measures (from the three groups) and agreed
that they were consistent, uniform and backed up by good clinical data," Wells
said.
On the Net:
Pennsylvania Health
Care Quality Alliance:
http://www.phcqa.org
National Association of Health Data Organizations: http://www.nahdo.org
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