Dive Brief:
- A new analysis of government safety data by Consumer Reports magazine shows that hospitals vary widely on patient safety measures, and that in some cases, patients may be safer at tiny rural hospitals than some nationally-known, high-prestige facilities.
- To do its research, Consumer Reports analyzed CMS safety ratings for 2,591 hospitals. It compiled data on readmissions, overuse of CT scans, hospital-acquired infections, communication between staff and patients and mortality (composed of patients who had a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia and died within 30 days of entering the hospital, plus surgery related deaths). The data was risk-adjusted.
- The conclusions presented by Consumer Reports disagrees with Medicare's data in some cases. For example, Consumer Reports gave Nyack Hospital in Nyack, New York a safety score of 25 out of 100. Medicare says the hospital's rate of surgical complications is about average.
Dive Insight:
While it's good to look at hospital safety, and try to guide consumers in their choices of hospitals, there are big gaps between the methodologies used by major rating organizations, and that includes between Consumer Reports and CMS. We seem to be a ways away from coming up with quality measures that everyone in the industry can agree upon and use. Still, in the meantime, we probably have something to learn from efforts like this one; after all, it's better to make an attempt to analyze the data than do nothing at all.