Hospital Compare: Information for Consumers


Pender Community Hospital is sharing information about the quality of care given to patients with heart failure and pneumonia through Hospital Compare, an online consumer search tool. Hospital Compare can be accessed by visiting either the www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov or www.medicare.gov web sites, or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

The Hospital Compare website was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), along with the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). The HQA is a public-private collaboration established to promote reporting on hospital quality of care. The HQA consists of organizations that represent consumers, hospitals, doctors and nurses, employers, accrediting organizations, and Federal agencies. The information on the website can be used by any patients needing hospital care.

What are Hospital Process of Care Measures?
A process of care measure shows how often hospitals give recommended treatments known to get the best results for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures. Information about these treatments are taken from the patients' records and converted into a percentage. This is one way to compare the quality of care that hospitals give. The hospital process of care measures currently include:
-Seven measures related to heart attack care.
-Four measures related to heart failure care.
-Seven measures related to pneumonia care.
-Seven measures related to surgical care improvement project.
-Two measures related to asthma care for children only.
The measures are based on scientific evidence about treatments that are known to get the best results. Health care experts and researchers are constantly evaluating the evidence to make sure that guidelines and measures are kept up-to-date. Sometimes, guidelines and measures are revised to reflect new evidence. The HQA expects to increase the number of measures and the types of conditions and treatments that hospitals will report over time.

Participating in Hospital Compare is voluntary. The quality outcome data posted on the Hospital Compare website reflects data that Pender Community Hospital submitted to CMS as part of the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative. We, at Pender Community Hospital, have been at the forefront of improving patient care as evidenced by our commitment to publicly report this data.

We voluntarily report this information because we are committed to quality improvement. Sharing this information demonstrates to the community that we are serious about improving quality, that we are committed to providing a continuum of exceptional healthcare services in a healing environment for everyone. We can be very proud of the care that we all provide to our patients.

By participating in this project we are learning how we can improve our quality outcomes. In areas where the reported outcome does not exceed our expectations, our review has consistently proven the clinical care to be of high quality; opportunities for better documentation of that care have been identified.

In addition to the efforts noted above, Pender Community Hospital will very soon be implementing the use of Exit Care, a software system designed with diagnosis specific discharge instructions/guidelines for patients and their caregivers. The medical staff and nursing staff will utilize this system to further improve clinical outcomes for patients at Pender Community Hospital.

IN SUMMARY: Please help us continue to make Pender Community Hospital the BEST place to get care and the BEST place to give care.

Please direct any questions or concerns to the Quality Improvement Project Coordinator at 402-385-4040 or urwilers@mercyhealth.com
(Feel free to contact the Quality Department for assistance with navigating the Hospital Compare website as well.)