Hospital Compare: A consumer quality tool

Presented by:Michael McMullan

Deputy Director, Center for Beneficiary ChoicesCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Hospital Quality Alliance: Improving Care Through Information

• A public-private collaboration to improve quality of care

• Goal: To identify a robust set of standardized and easy-to-understand hospital quality measures.

• Provides information for consumers and healthcare professionals

• Collaboration and Partnership

Overview

• One of many quality compare websites

• Informs consumers about quality and incentivizes for quality improvement

Overview

• Applies to all adult patients

• Web address: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov www.medicare.gov

Consumer Testing

• Consumers and healthcare professionals

• Testing of the prototype for ease of navigation and usability

• Results of testing reflected on the website

• Continue testing for improvements

Hospital Compare Provides:

• Information for consumers to start a conversation about how to get the best care.

• A tool that equips consumers to:– think more concretely about quality– realize that quality can differ across facilities– understand that there are quality differences

and these differences can be measured– learn that individuals can affect quality through

their questions and their choices

What Hospital Compare Isn’t:

• Top 100 Hospitals

• The only resource for making healthcare decisions

• Set in concrete