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CMS updates pediatric quality measures on Hospital Compare

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, August 26, 2008

Last Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced it is adding quality measure updates to its consumer Web site, Hospital Compare. In a nationwide initiative to encourage public reporting, improve patient care, and empower consumers about healthcare choices, the CMS Web site—in joint efforts with the Hospital Quality Alliance—provides hospital data about heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, asthma, and surgery, as well as Medicare inpatient hospital payment information.

For the first time, the three-year Web site includes the 30-day mortality pneumonia rates of children, adding to the publicly available rates of adult patients. The added pediatric mortality rates are a benchmark for a Medicare system that rewards strong performance. More than 56,700 health professionals earned more than $36 million in bonus payments participating in Medicare’s 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, according to a separate CMS announcement last month.

The Hospital Compare Web site currently has totaled more than 20 million page views this year, according to the press release.

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