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April 5th, 2005
"Consumer Web site unveiled covering hospital care"
The U.S. government has unveiled a consumer oriented Web site that is designed to give people information regarding the quality of care at hospitals across the country.
The site allows people to assess seventeen different measures of quality now listed on the site, and further measures are currently in the works, including patient satisfaction and hospital infection rates. Since the quality of care can greatly differ between hospitals, consumers are able to look at widely accepted measures of quality, including the percentage of heart attack patients who receive an aspirin when arriving at a hospital.
Every three months, hospitals report data, which is then audited by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. According to Medicare officials, 99 percent of the nation’s acute care hospitals are reporting their data, which is in part motivated because they can get a 0.4 percent increase in their Medicare reimbursements.
The data has been available for a few months, but it was more difficult to find and not as user-friendly. The Web site is part of greater efforts to provide more information to consumers that would allow more informed decisions regarding medical care. Some experts hope by reporting information reflecting the quality of healthcare it will further motivate hospitals to improve their care.
