Annual Report - Improving America's Hospitals

Measurement

Improving America's Hospitals - The Joint Commission's Annual Report on Quality and Safety

For the first time, The Joint Commission’s annual report on quality and safety, Improving America’s Hospitals, lists hospitals and critical access hospitals that are top performers in using evidence-based care processes closely linked to positive patient outcomes. The 405 organizations identified as attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for the full previous year (2010) represent approximately 14 percent of Joint Commission-accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals that report core measure performance data. See the list of top performing hospitals and the measure set or sets for which the hospital is recognized.

The Joint Commission’s sixth annual report, which presents scientific evidence of hospital performance and how it relates to common medical conditions and procedures, demonstrates continual improvement on accountability measures over a nine-year period. The newest data, drawn from more than 3,000 accredited hospitals, show significant progress in consistently using evidence-based treatments. In 2002, hospitals achieved 81.8 percent composite performance on 957,000 opportunities to perform care processes related to accountability measures. In 2010, hospitals achieved 96.6 percent composite performance on 12.3 million opportunities – a nine-year improvement of 14.8 percentage points. The percentage of hospitals achieving composite accountability measures greater than 90 percent has also dramatically improved. In 2010, 91.7 percent of hospitals achieved 90 percent compliance, compared to 20.4 percent in 2002.