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Research News
August 27, 2008
HSR&D Researchers Contribute to Hospital Mortality Rate Comparison
Researchers Harlan Krumholz, MD and John Rumsfeld, MD, PhD, both part of VA/HSR&D's Ischemic Heart Disease Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (IHD-QUERI) played pivotal roles in the development and evaluation of new data comparing hospital mortality rates that was recently released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In the past, CMS released a broad comparison of death rates for heart attacks and heart failure but had not disclosed mortality rates. This year, CMS disclosed those rates to the general public, along with more than two dozen other measures of how well hospitals meet patients' needs.
All the measurements studied give hospitals ways to assess and improve quality of care, but mortality rates (inpatient and post-discharge) are considered of the highest value in measuring performance. By releasing this information in an easy-to-use, searchable format, consumers also will now have clear and immediate access to cardiac care mortality information for their local hospitals. Making this data available is a positive step forward in improving overall hospital and healthcare quality, and in bringing more transparency to healthcare decision-making.
To learn more about hospital mortality data, visit the CMS website, or use the hospital comparison tool at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
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