Medicare has published patient safety ratings for thousands of hospitals available through its Hospital Compare website, according to a Kaiser Health News/MSNBC report.
Patients can now compare hospitals based on a number of patient safety factors including the following:
- Complications during treatment
- Avoidable deaths
- Infections
- Falls
- Medical errors
- Retained objects
The publishing of the ratings comes as hospital reimbursement moves toward the new value-based purchasing program set to begin in Oct. 2012. The program, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, will reimburse hospitals for inpatient acute care services based on care quality, not just the quantity of the services they provide. Hospitals identified as providing the lowest quality of care could risk losing up to 2 percent of their Medicare reimbursement.
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Hospital officials have objected to the Hospital Compare evaluation system and the ratings have come under increasing scrutiny as they are based on billing claims rather than clinical medical records.
The newest data published on the website address the period between Oct. 2008 and June 2010.
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