Media Release

For Immediate Release
Date: July 8, 2003
Contact: Jean Marie Rocha 222-4872

RI Health Department Releases Second Report on Hospital Clinical Performance; Report Shows Continued Improvement in Key Services

The RI Department of Health (HEALTH) today released the second hospital-specific clinical performance report for Rhode Island. The report, available on the HEALTH website at www.health.ri.gov , provides updated information on how often hospitals in Rhode Island give recommended care to patients hospitalized for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. The ten hospitals included in the report routinely care for patients with these three conditions. The report presents data collected from medical records of patients who were treated between January 2002 and June 2002.

"Today’s report shows continued improvement in hospital performance for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia care." said Patricia A Nolan, MD, MPH, RI Director of Health "Although the changes are small, when compared to the first report in December 2002, hospitals in Rhode Island are moving in the right direction. We believe that information about clinical performance plays a key role in quality improvement. The next report, due in September 2004, will reflect the full impact of widespread public dissemination of information on hospital performance."

The report results from the 1998 Rhode Island Performance Measurement and Reporting Program (RIHQPMRP) that tracks performance of licensed health care facilities including hospitals and nursing homes. Individual hospitals have been collecting clinical information for many years, but the uniform data collection process allows hospitals to share best practices and engage in cooperative improvement efforts.

This program is a continued effort by several workgroups with representation and cooperation from many interested organizations. In addition to HEALTH, these include the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI), hospitals, Qualidigm (consultant to HEALTH), Quality Partners of Rhode Island (the federally qualified quality improvement organization in RI), consumers (including minority groups), physicians, nurses, and academics/researchers.

HEALTH released the first hospital-specific clinical measures report in December 2002--reflecting care provided in hospitals between May and December 2001. It also compared the performance of Rhode Island facilities with hospitals in eight other states. This latest report focuses on care provided between January and June 2002. It demonstrates the effectiveness of statewide efforts to improve clinical care in hospitals. Hospitals continue to work collaboratively to improve care in many key areas. An earlier report (May 2001) compared quality of hospital care for Medicare patients in RI with that of New England states and the nation (July-Dec 1998).

Interested parties may view or download this report on HEALTH’s website at: http://www.health.ri.gov/chic/performance/home.htm . If you have questions about this report, call HEALTH at 401-222-2550.