Last week, CMS expanded its Hospital Compare website to include facility-specific data on serious hospital-acquired conditions, Health Data Management reports (Goedert, Health Data Management, 4/7).
Background
CMS recently released an electronic file containing data on eight hospital-acquired conditions at facilities participating in its inpatient quality reporting program.
The eight conditions included in the file are:
- Air embolism;
- Blood incompatibility;
- Catheter-associated infections;
- Falls and trauma;
- Foreign objects left in body after surgery;
- Pressure ulcers;
- Uncontrolled blood sugar levels; and
- Urinary tract infections (iHealthBeat, 4/4).
Data Added to Hospital Compare
CMS now has added the hospital-acquired condition data to its Hospital Compare site. The data show the number of hospital-acquired conditions per 1,000 discharges for Medicare fee-for-service patients between October 2008 and June 2010.
The figures are not adjusted to account for hospitals' patient populations or case mix (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 4/7).
Hospitals' Concerns
Many hospital leaders have opposed the release of hospital-acquired condition information because of concerns about the accuracy of the data.
According to the American Hospital Association, the measurements used to compute the hospital-acquired condition rates could be inaccurate, and the National Quality Forum has not endorsed the measures (iHealthBeat, 4/4).