Experts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have rated 4,700 hospitals throughout the USA, and found that the majority do meet the national average for quality care in the treatment of heart attack and heart failure.
The HHS announced a new website, Hospital Compare, created by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an HHS agency. Consumers will now have a better insight into the quality of care provided by local hospitals, says HHS. CMS has also published the first annual update of pricing and volume information on certain elective hospital procedure, details of which can be found here.
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said “These improvements add to our continuing effort to provide better, value-based, health care at a lower cost for all Americans. Quality standards are best developed by the medical family and hospitals. I applaud the Hospital Quality Alliance for providing information that everyone can use and agree upon for the benefit of consumers.”
The new service arms consumers with useful information:
— An enhanced ‘snapshot’ that captures information on the quality of care they received from providers
— Updated pricing and volume information
— Details on new outcomes, such as mortality outcome measure that reflect care of heart attack and heart failure patients
— In 2008 the web site will include patient satisfaction information
CMS says that through the Hospital Compare web site, it is working to implement the principles of a value-based system in the Medicare program. By further empowering consumer choice, the web site will encourage providers to provide better care for less money.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today