Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Using Harm-Based Weights for the AHRQ Patient Safety for Selected Indicators Composite (PSI-90): Does It Affect Assessment of Hospital Performance and Financial Penalties in Veterans Health Administration Hospitals?

Chen Q, Rosen AK, Borzecki A, Shwartz M. Using Harm-Based Weights for the AHRQ Patient Safety for Selected Indicators Composite (PSI-90): Does It Affect Assessment of Hospital Performance and Financial Penalties in Veterans Health Administration Hospitals? Health services research. 2016 Dec 1; 51(6):2140-2157.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether hospital profiles for public reporting and pay-for-performance, measured by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety for Selected Indicators (PSI-90) composite measure, were affected by using the recently developed harm-based weights. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Retrospective analysis of 2012-2014 data from the Veterans Health Administration (VA). STUDY DESIGN: The AHRQ PSI software (v5.0) was applied to obtain the original volume-based PSI-90 scores for 132 acute-care hospitals. We constructed a modified PSI-90 using the harm-based weights developed by AHRQ. We compared hospital profiles for public reporting and pay-for-performance between these two PSI-90s and assessed patterns in these changes. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The volume-based and the harm-based PSI-90s were strongly correlated (r  =  0.67, p  <  .0001). The use of the harm-based PSI-90 had a relatively small impact on public reporting (i.e., 5 percent hospitals changed categorization), but it had a much larger impact on pay-for-performance (e.g., 15 percent of hospitals would have faced different financial penalties under the Medicare Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program). Because of changes in weights of specific PSIs, hospital profile changes occurred systematically. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the harm-based weights in PSI-90 has the potential to significantly change payments under pay-for-performance programs. Policy makers should carefully develop transition plans for guiding hospitals through changes in any quality metrics used for pay-for-performance.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.