View and Compare Scores for Area Hospitals
In this tool you will find information on how well hospitals care for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures, and results from a survey of patients about the quality of care they received during a recent hospital stay.
Quality scores on this Web site tell you how well hospitals in Kansas City care for patients with a wide range of health problems. The information can be used to:
- Help you choose a hospital for yourself.
- Provide useful information for your loved ones if they need hospital care.
- Encourage hospitals to improve their quality.
- Help everyone learn more about hospital quality.
Here are the facts:
- All hospitals do not provide the same quality of care. Some hospitals are better than others.
- A particular hospital might do a very good job of caring for patients with some health problems and not such a good job caring for patients with other health problems.
- Whenever anyone goes to the hospital, there is a chance they could get a new health problem while getting treatment for an existing problem.
- Hospitals vary in how well they protect patients from these risks.
- Your doctor, or the specialist or surgeon he or she recommends, may be highly skilled, but hospital quality also depends on how well all the hospital staff, such as the nurses, take care of you, and on how well the hospital is organized.
Given those facts, our goal is to give you information you can use to increase your chances of getting the best possible hospital care when you need it.
What can you do?
- You can use the hospital quality scores on this Web site to make comparisons. Talk with your doctor about these scores.
Here are things to know:
- These scores use data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which collects hospital performance information through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). You can look at this data for hospitals throughout the country by going to www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
- The quality of a hospital is more than just the scores we show on this Web site. Hospitals provide care for other illnesses and conditions that these scores don't cover. And hospitals are working to improve the care they provide.
- These scores can help you be a better-informed patient, but they are not intended to give you medical advice or suggestions for treatment.
- You can use these scores, together with other information, when you and your doctor are making decisions about the best way for you to get the care you need.
- Be sure to discuss these hospital quality scores with your doctor. These scores are not intended to provide medical advice or suggestions for treatment. Rather, it is here to help you become a more informed patient and guide the important discussions you will want to have with your doctor-especially when you are faced with important health care decisions.
Comparing quality of care in Kansas City hospitals
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Hospital Quality Alliance, and hospitals across the nation are working together to create and publicly report hospital quality information. This information measures how well hospitals care for their patients, regardless of whether the care was paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, or a private health insurance plan.
The hospital quality scores on this Web site tell how well hospitals are doing at providing recommended care for patients with certain common conditions. Research has shown that these treatments provide the best results for most patients with those conditions and are an important part of the patients' overall care.
You should know, however, that a hospital's quality is more than just its scores on these measures. Hospitals provide care for other illnesses and conditions for which measures are still under development. A hospital should be able to tell you what steps it is taking to improve its care. The information you will find on this website is intended to help you when you talk with your physician or hospital about how you can get the care you need.
Clinical condition scores
Clinical quality facts are collected from hospitals' patient records. The data is converted to rates that measure how well the hospitals care for their patients. This is done by seeing how often the hospital follows procedures known to result in better outcomes for patients.
Patient experience scores
HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. HCAHPS (pronounced "H-caps") was created to publicly report the patient's perspective of hospital care. The survey asks a random sample of recently discharged patients about important aspects of their hospital experience.
HCAHPS was developed by a partnership of public and private organizations. Development of the survey was funded by the Federal government, specifically the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
For additional HCAHPS information, visit the official Web site.
Data collection periods
The scores on the Quality Health Together site are based on data collected between July 2007 and June 2008.
How often are the scores updated?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is projected to release new data four times a year (April, June, September and December).
Understanding the hospital scores
The first step is to choose a report:
 What are the Hospital Process of Care Measures?
A process of care measure shows how often hospitals give recommended treatments known to get the best results for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures. Information about these treatments are taken from the patients records and converted into a percentage. This is one way to compare the quality of care that hospitals give.
The measures are based on scientific evidence about treatments that are known to get the best results. Health care experts and researchers are constantly evaluating the evidence to make sure that guidelines and measures are kept up-to-date. Sometimes, guidelines and measures are revised to reflect new evidence. The HQA expects to increase the number of measures and the types of conditions and treatments that hospitals will report over time. View this
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 What is the Survey of Patients' Hospital Experiences (HCAHPS)? HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. HCAHPS (pronounced "H-caps") was created to publicly report the patient's perspective of hospital care. The survey asks a random sample of recently discharged patients about important aspects of their hospital experience. The HCAHPS results posted on Hospital Compare allow consumers to make fair and objective comparisons between hospitals, and of individual hospitals to state and national benchmarks, on ten important measures of patients' perspectives of care. HCAHPS was developed by a partnership of public and private organizations. Development of the survey was funded by the Federal government, specifically the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). For more on HCAHPS information, please see Information for Professionals on this website, or visit the official HCAHPS website: www.hcahpsonline.org.View this
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 What are the Hospital Outcome of Care Measures? "Outcome of Care Measures" show what happened after patients with certain conditions received hospital care. The death rates focus on whether patients died within 30 days of their hospitalization. The rates of readmission focus on whether patients were hospitalized again within 30 days. Death rates and rates of readmission show whether a hospital is doing its best to prevent complications, teach patients at discharge, and ensure patients make a smooth transition to their home or another setting such as a nursing home. The hospital death rates and rates of readmission are based on people with Medicare who are 65 and older. These rates are calculated using Medicare enrollment and claims records, and a complex statistical procedure. The death rates and rates of readmission are "risk-adjusted", meaning that the calculations take into account how sick patients were when they went in for their initial hospitalization. When the rates are risk-adjusted, it helps make comparisons fair and meaningful. View this
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 What is Medicare Payment and Volume? Patients that have similar clinical characteristics and similar costs are assigned to an MS-DRG. The MS-DRG will be associated with a fixed payment amount based on the average cost of patients in the group. Patients are assigned to a MS-DRG based on diagnosis, surgical procedures, age and other information. Medicare uses this information that is provided by hospitals on their bill to decide how much they should be paid. Hospital Compare shows information for each hospital on selected MS-DRGs from October 2007 through September 2008. If a MS-DRG has "Complications" or "Comorbidities" in its title,it means the hospital may have treated more complicated patients. Because MS-DRGs are highly technical, patients and other consumers may need to work with a doctor or other healthcare provider to understand these terms as well as the payment and volume information. CC refers to complications or comorbidities. MCC refers to major complications or comorbidities.When Medicare pays a hospital based on the MS-DRG, it takes into account the following (case mix):
The payment and volume information is for acute care hospitals. Critical access hospitals (CAH) and Children's Hospitals are not included because they are paid using another method. Median Medicare Payments Median Medicare payments for the same MS-DRG can vary. The median payment refers to the midpoint of all payments to the hospital for a particular MS-DRG, that is, half the payments were lower and half the payments were higher than the median payment. A hospital can get a higher payment for any or all of the following reasons:
Range of Payments 25th 75th Percentile Hospital Compare lets you compare the hospitals you select with other hospitals in your state and in the nation. The state and national amounts are shown as a range of payments (between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile). This is the range of payments for the most typical cases treated for the MS-DRG. The information doesn't include unusually low payments for cases, such as when a patient was transferred to another facility before being fully treated. It also doesn't include unusually high payments for cases that are more complex and costly to treat. Only one number appears in this field when the 25th and 75th percentiles are the same. View this
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