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VA Quality Data Released on Hospital Compare Web Site
August 5, 2011
VA Quality Data Released to Public on CMS Hospital Compare Web Site
WASHINGTON (August 5, 2011) - Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) medical centers are now included in the Centers for Medicaid and
Medicare Services (CMS) Hospital Compare Web site, which measures
hospital quality based on what matters most to patients - the outcomes
of care.
"VA is committed to providing Veterans and their family members with a
transparent accounting of the quality and safety of its health care
system," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "In
collaborating with CMS, we show our determination to be open and
accountable to Veterans and their families."
Release of outcomes data to the public is not new for VA.
Mortality and readmission results were first posted in 2010 on the VA
Hospital Compare Web site (www.hospitalcompare.va.gov/) using a similar
method limited to only VA patients. VA results posted on VA's site are
updated quarterly and will not match the results on CMS Hospital
Compare, which are only updated annually and lag about year.
CMS is reporting 30-day measures for three common and high-cost
conditions: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), and
pneumonia to the public through its Web site,
www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/. This year CMS is reporting results for
patients treated in VA's health care system. The inclusion of VA data on
CMS Hospital Compare is indicative of VA's commitment to transparency,
accountability and quality. Annual reporting on these measures furthers
the goal of measuring and rewarding quality as a strategy for improving
health care outcomes for Veterans and for patients overall.
Results of VA medical centers' risk-adjusted mortality and readmission
are available to the public on the CMS Hospital Compare Web site
starting today.
Veterans, stakeholders and the general public will be able to directly
compare the mortality rates and readmission rates at individual VA
medical centers against non-VA hospitals for AMI, HF and pneumonia.
The cases reported are from July 2007 through June 2010 for
approximately 4,530 non-federal U.S. acute care hospitals (including
critical access hospitals) and Indian Health Services hospitals.
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