HealthPartners.com - Hospital Quality Ratings

Hospital Quality Ratings

What are the quality clusters for hospitals and how are they used to create the overall quality score?

For hospitals, quality information is grouped into the following clusters, which are weighted as shown below to create the overall quality score.

Patient Experience - 33%
Helping patients Get Better - 33%
Safety and Health Information Technology 33%

The overall quality score is then converted into a star rating.

Hospitals must have results for at least half of the measures within a cluster in order for that cluster to be included in their overall quality assessment. Hospitals must have results in all quality clusters to calculate an overall quality score.

What measures are used in the clusters?

Patient Experience:
Source is CMS Hospital HCAHPS satisfaction survey, July 2008 through June 2009 results. For further information, see http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
How do patients rate the hospital overall
Would patients recommend the hospital to friends and family
How often did doctors communicate well with patients
How often did nurses communicate well with patients
How often did patients receive help quickly from hospital staff
How often did staff explain about medicines before giving them to patients
How often was patients pain well controlled
How often was the area around patients rooms kept quiet at night
How often were the patients rooms and bathrooms kept clean
Were patients given information about what to do during their recovery at home

Helping Patients Get Better

Measure	Endorsing Organization
Medical Care: Heart attack	Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO)
Medical Care: Heart attack death rate	JCAHO
Medical Care: Returning to the hospital for heart attack	Centers for Medicaid/Medicare Services (CMS) CMS
Medical Care: Heart failure	JCAHO
Medical Care: Heart failure death rate	CMS
Medical Care: Returning to the hospital for heart failure	CMS
Medical Care: Pneumonia	JCAHO
Medical Care: Pneumonia death rate	CMS
Medical Care: Returning to the hospital for pneumonia	CMS
OB Care: High-risk births	The Leapfrog Group
Surgical Care: Heart bypass surgery	The Leapfrog Group
Surgical Care: Heart angioplasty	The Leapfrog Group
Surgical Care: Repairing aortic aneurysm	The Leapfrog Group
Surgical Care: Repairing heart valves	The Leapfrog Group

Safety and Health Information Technology

Measure	Endorsing Organization
Medication safety	The Leapfrog Group
Intensive care staffing	The Leapfrog Group
Overall safety	The Leapfrog Group
Meeting safety goals	JCAHO
Managing serious mistakes	The Leapfrog Group

JCAHO results are reported national results, October 2008 to September 2009. For additional explanation or to see the latest results, go to http://www.qualitycheck.org. CMS results are based on July 2005 through June 2008 outcomes results. For further information or to check for more recent results, see http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Leapfrog results are 2009 Final Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey Results. For further information or to check for more recent results, see http://www.leapfroggroup.org. The Leapfrog Group depicts hospital results with a shaded circle (e.g., fully shaded is better than one that is half-shaded). For cluster ratings, HealthPartners translates a three-quarters- or full-shaded circle to above average, a half-shaded circle to average, and a circle that is one-quarter-shaded or not shaded to below average.

How are quality clusters different for hospitals outside the 11-county metro area in Minnesota?

The availability of quality measures varies for hospitals outside the metro area. For other hospitals in other states, an overall quality rating is determined if results are available for a majority of measures in at least two of the three quality clusters.