New Hospital Rankings By Government

Hospital Ratings tool was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health and Human Services, and other members of the Hospital Quality Alliance: Improving Care Through Information (HQA).

Hospital Compare displays rates for Process of Care measures that show how often hospitals provide some of the care that is recommended for patients being treated for a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia, or patients having surgery. Hospitals voluntarily submit data from their medical records about the treatments their adult patients receive for these conditions, including patients with Medicare and those who do not have Medicare.

This website also displays information on 30-day Risk Adjusted Death (Mortality) Rates for patients with Medicare who were admitted to the hospital for heart attack and heart failure. The 30-day period is used because this is the time period when deaths are most likely to be related to the care patients received in the hospital. The CMS compiles this information from claims and enrollment data for patients in Original (fee-for-service) Medicare. Unlike the rates for the Process of Care measures, which reflect care for people in Medicare Advantage plans or people who do not have Medicare, the mortality rates show information only for patients in Original Medicare. It does not include people in Medicare Advantage plans or people who do not have Medicare.

Neither process of care information nor information on death (mortality) rates are available on this website for children�s, psychiatric, rehabilitation, or long-term care hospitals.

To help you make good health care decisions, refer to How To Use This Information.

This information helps you, your health care provider, family, and friends compare the quality of care provided in the hospitals that agree to submit data on the quality of certain services they provide for certain conditions. This quality information not only helps you make good decisions about your health care, but also encourages hospitals to improve the quality of health care they provide.

Quality information is not available on this website for children's, psychiatric, rehabilitation or long-term care hospitals because they generally do not treat adult patients for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia, or perform surgeries on adults.

Your Rights as a Hospital Patient

To learn about your rights when you are in the hospital read the American Hospital Association's Patient Bill of Rights.

If you are a Medicare patient, the hospital should give you a copy of the Important Message From Medicare notice. You can learn more about your Medicare rights by reading the publication Your Medicare Rights and Protections.

The Hospital Quality Alliance and Hospital Compare

The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA): Improving Care Through Information was created in December 2002. Led by the American Hospital Association (AHA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the HQA effort is intended to make it easier for the consumer to make informed healthcare decisions, and to support efforts to improve quality in U.S. hospitals. The major vehicle for achieving this goal is the consumer-oriented Hospital Compare website.

The HQA collaborators and others support this initiative as the beginning of an ongoing effort to make hospital performance information more accessible to the public, payers, and providers of care. For a list of all the hospitals participating in the HQA, click here.

Organizations Working to Improve Hospital Quality

CMS and other organizations interested in hospital quality are working to improve the quality of care given to all Americans in our nation's hospitals. - Source: http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/