What's New on Quality Check

April 2009

NEW!  National Quality Improvement Goals Data
As of April 2009, National Quality Improvement Goal (ORYX) information for the reporting period October 2007 though September 2008 is available on the Quality Check website.  This update includes:

• NEW!   Children’s Asthma Care (CAC-3) Home Management Plan of Care (HMPC) Document Given to Patient/Caregiver appears as a placeholder.  Rates will be available on the next quarterly release.
  
  
• NEW!   AMI - 6 Beta-blocker at arrival was removed and will be retired effective with discharges after March 31, 2009.
  
  
• NEW!!   Target Methodology has been implemented with this release of National Quality Improvement Goal data. Additional information regarding implementation of the new Target Analysis methodology for assessing hospital performance on the core measures will be available in the Quality Check User Guide: Hospitals.
  
  
• UPDATED!   HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems) Survey of Patients’ Hospital Experiences results are available!  The data comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Compare Web site.  The CMS HCAHPS data reporting period is April 2007 through March 2008.
  
  
• UPDATED!  CMS 30-Day Mortality Measures File - Individual hospital 30-day mortality rate details are now included. The most updated CMS mortality data file available is as of December 10, 2008. The CMS 30-day mortality measure data reporting is for discharges July 2006 through June 2007. 
  

February 2009

Quality Reports for organizations with tailored components surveyed after January 1, 2009, will no longer display an organization level accreditation decision; instead, these Quality Reports will include program level decisions and effective dates, and any associated Requirements for Improvement at the program level. This change reflects The Joint Commission’s recent policy revision that unlinks accreditation decisions in a tailored survey.  Quality Reports for organizations with tailored components surveyed prior to the new unlinking accreditation decision policy will continue to display an organization level accreditation decision and any associated Requirements for Improvement until their next on-site accreditation survey.

Click here to see a comparison view of this change. (Requires Adobe Reader)