USA. US Department of Health and Human Services Initiatives
USA
US Department of Health and Human Services InitiativesKeywords: Quality measures, Consumers,Clinicians, National Healthcare Safety Network
In December it was announced that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to help develop and refine quality measures for hospitals,including a three-state pilot project and a standardized patient experience survey instrument. Data will be collected about ten measures in three disease areas:
- 1.
Heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)
- 2.
Was aspirin given to the patient when admitted to the hospital?
Was aspirin prescribed when the patient was discharged?
Was a beta-blocker given to the patient when admitted to the hospital?
Was a beta-blocker prescribed when the patient was discharged?
Was an ACE Inhibitor given for the patient with heart failure?
- 3.
Heart failure
- 4.
Did the patient get an assessment of his or her heart function?
Was an ACE Inhibitor given to the patient?
- 5.
Pneumonia
- 6.
Was an antibiotic given to the patient in a timely way?
Had a patient received a Pneumococcal vaccination?
Was the patient's oxygen level assessed when admitted?
The initial set of ten measures will enable hospitals to standardize the information so it is relevant for clinicians in their quality improvement efforts, and to consumers to help them make more informed health care decisions. It will also give hospitals, the government and others a better understanding of how consumers use this type of quality information. The new measures are to be made available publicly on the www.cms.hhs.gov Web site.
HHS will support the new hospital information effort with a three-state pilot project in Maryland, New York and Arizona. Conducted by HHS Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS), with the quality improvement organizations in each state, the pilot will test the most effective ways to communicate with consumers about hospital quality of care. CMS Administrator Tom Scully said:"As hospitals undertake this solid first step in public quality reporting,we want to help them determine how to make this data most helpful. Our pilot project will measure the real-world impact of the ten initial quality measures announced today."
The HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is working with experts in the health care industry to develop a standardized patient experience survey, known as H-CAHPS. Most hospitals in the USA conduct patient surveys,usually for internal use, using private vendors. AHRQ is developing a standard format for collecting and reporting patient experience data that can be used to compare experiences at different hospitals. The new standardised format will also be tested in the new three-state pilot project.
In addition to the CMS and AHRQ efforts, HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are also preparing to test a National Healthcare Safety Network, which will track information relevant to hospital patient and health care worker safety. The new network will collect data electronically, and will make prevention guidelines and other information available to all health facilities.
