Variation in surgical quality measure adherence within hospital referral regions: do publicly reported surgical quality measures distinguish among hospitals that patients are likely to compare?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether surgical quality measures that Medicare publicly reports provide a basis for patients to choose a hospital from within their geographic region.

Data source

The Department of Health and Human Services' public reporting website, http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare.

Study design

We identified hospitals (n = 2,953) reporting adherence rates to the quality measures intended to reduce surgical site infections (Surgical Care Improvement Project, 1-3) in 2012. We defined regions within which patients were likely to compare hospitals using the hospital referral regions (HRRs) from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care Project. We described distributions of reported SCIP adherence within each HRR, including medians, interquartile ranges (IQRs), s

SUBMITTER: Safavi KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4111773 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature