Hospitals Participate In National Reporting Initiative

HARTFORD –– The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) has announced that all 30 adult general acute care hospitals in Connecticut are taking part in the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative. Connecticut was the first state to achieve 100 percent participation by its hospitals in this national initiative to build a permanent public resource on hospital performance.

The initiative is the product of a collaborative effort between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH). CMS launched the first reporting phase of the initiative –– an online directory of participating hospitals and their information –– on its provider website this month.

Although the data included in this initial website posting are intended for clinicians’ use, the measures will be accessible by the public. The data includes information on ten hospital clinical performance measures related to the delivery of services that evidence has shown to be effective in the management of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia –– some of the most prevalent conditions treated by hospitals.

Data from approximately 415 of the 1,700 hospitals participating in the voluntary national initiative are included in the initial CMS website posting. While all Connecticut hospitals are participating, the initial website posting only includes data from 17 of the 30. Future CMS website postings will include additional hospital data and more consumer-friendly explanations.

This special project not only allows Connecticut to work with CMS to develop nationally standardized hospital performance reporting, but also supports DPH’s efforts to create a public report of comparative patient satisfaction and clinical performance measures required by section 19a-127(1)-(n) of Connecticut’s General Statutes.

Partnering with DPH on this project are Qualidigm, Connecticut’s Quality Performance Organization (QIO), and the Connecticut Hospital Association.

The CMS hospital quality initiative is just one piece of a larger, national quality initiative that also involves the public reporting of both nursing home and home health care information. More information about the initiative and how to access the data can be found on the CMS website: www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/.