New Jersey has posted online the state's first hospital report card, which focuses on quality measures for treating heart attacks and pneumonia, Modern Healthcare reports. The report includes details on performance at 82 general acute care hospitals, as well as a consumer advice section on health management and patients' rights (Morrissey, Modern Healthcare, 7/1).
The report focuses on heart attack and pneumonia care because they are a major cause of death and hospitalization and research has "clearly shown" the best treatments, the Associated Press reports (Johnson, Associated Press, 7/1). The performance measures are based on a set of 10 quality standards hospitals already report to the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, a public-private partnership that posts information on the CMS Web page. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and the Kansas City areas of Kansas and Missouri have separate quality reports posted online or have plans for such Web sites.
Hospitals on the New Jersey Web site are listed in order of performance or by region. "It's one piece of the puzzle. The data is valid," New Jersey Hospital Association spokesperson Ron Czajkowski said. "Unfortunately, it is a best-to-worst ranking, and in the public mind's eye that sometimes leads to knee-jerk perceptions as opposed to paying attention to the data itself" (Modern Healthcare, 7/1).
Eurice Rojas, director of marketing and corporate development for Palisades Medical Center, which received the lowest score on the report card, said the data "doesn't represent a true picture" of overall care quality (Associated Press, 7/1).