Medical Staff

Hospital Compare releases readmission rates

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, July 13, 2009

Adding more clinical data to the public reporting Web site, HospitalCompare, the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) last week released readmission rates for hospitalized Medicare patients. The Web site features data of patients with heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia who return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.

“Until now, hospitals have had only information on those patients who return to their own hospital, but not about patients who were readmitted to a different hospital,” according to a July 9 press release from the HQA. “The information on Hospital Compare shows how often a Medicare patient with one of these conditions returns to the same hospital or a different hospital within 30 days following their initial stay.”

The Web site compares a hospital’s readmission rate as “better, worse, or no different” than the national rate in the U.S.

With the goal to reduce nationwide readmissions, HospitalCompare features standardized measures of more than 4,000 hospitals, according to the statement.

Among HQA member organizations are The Joint Commission, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Hospital Association.

[via Patient Safety Monitor Blog]

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