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News Release

SECRETARY THOMPSON WELCOMES NEW EFFORT
TO PROVIDE HOSPITAL QUALITY OF CARE INFORMATION

HHS Will Conduct Pilot Tests of the New Voluntary Quality Measures
and a New Standardized "Patient Experience" Survey

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today applauded the nation's hospital leadership for new steps they announced toward providing public information on quality of care, and he joined in calling on hospitals throughout the nation to participate in the voluntary effort. At the same time, Secretary Thompson announced steps HHS will take to help develop and refine quality measures for hospitals, including a three-state pilot project and a standardized patient experience survey instrument.

"I am excited and proud to work with America's hospitals on this important step forward for the quality information movement," Secretary Thompson said at a news conference where the voluntary efforts were announced. "In the past year, we joined with nursing homes to make quality information available on individual nursing facilities. We are eager to work with others throughout the health care sector to make quality disclosure a robust and helpful element throughout our health care system."

In their action today, the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federation of American Hospitals (the Federation) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) committed to work toward having all U.S. hospitals voluntarily report outcomes of 10 quality measures relating to the care provided to patients, including millions of Medicare beneficiaries.

The 10 measures in three disease areas to be initially reported in the joint program are:

• Heart attack (Acute Myocardial Infarction)
  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?
  
  
• Heart failure
  Did the patient get an assessment of his or her heart function?
  Was an ACE Inhibitor given to the patient?
  
  
• Pneumonia
  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?

Just last month, Secretary Thompson and nursing home industry leaders launched a national Nursing Home Quality Initiative that includes new public information about the quality of care provided in individual nursing homes. The nursing home quality launch followed a successful six-state pilot project to determine the usefulness of the nursing home quality measures.

Secretary Thompson announced today that HHS will also 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.

"As hospitals undertake this solid first step in public quality reporting, we want to help them determine how to make this data most helpful," said CMS Administrator Tom Scully. "Our pilot project will measure the real-world impact of the 10 initial quality measures announced today."

Secretary Thompson also announced today that 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 United States 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 standardized format will also be tested in the new three-state pilot project.

"When the survey instrument is completed, it will be available for all hospitals to use," said AHRQ Acting Director Carolyn Clancy, M.D. "This effort will be expanded to build on our successful CAHPS survey which measures consumers' experiences with health plans. Currently, about 100 million Americans, including Medicare beneficiaries, can use the information from the CAHPS survey to make important decisions about their health care coverage."

Secretary Thompson emphasized that today's announcement represents one of many steps toward more complete reporting of quality information.

"We already have data on every nursing home patient in America through the CMS minimum data set system, and this gave us a head start in our ability to publicly report quality measures for nursing homes," he said. "For hospitals, we are at an earlier stage. Agreeing on these 10 initial measures is a big first step, and getting participation by hospitals will be a next important step. Ultimately, we want partnerships for quality throughout the health care sector."

In addition to the CMS and AHRQ efforts, HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is 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. It represents the "next generation" of CDC's National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System, which tracks hospital-acquired infections.

In addition to the AHA, the Federation, and the AAMC, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Quality Forum are all working with HHS to develop and implement the voluntary hospital program announced today.

The initial set of 10 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

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: December 13, 2002