Media Release

For Immediate Release
April 1, 2005
Contact: Robert Marshall, PhD, 401-222-1017

New Website Compares Hospital Performance; Information on Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia

Today, the RI Department of Health (HEALTH) linked its website with the new federal data base for comparing hospital performance on three common health problems with widely accepted standards of practice. “Hospital Compare” operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), provides nationwide information on hospital treatment for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia.

All eleven general, acute-care hospitals in Rhode Island participated in the project. The federal website does not rank hospitals or provide a listing of the top 100 hospitals nationally but provides information about how well each one does on problem-specific performance measures.

“Performance information helps the public to be better consumers and hospitals to be better providers of essential health services,” said David R. Gifford, MD, MPH, Acting Director of Health. “Congratulations to Rhode Island ‘s hospital community and to CMS for making this useful information widely available.”

For direct access to the CMS website go to www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. CMS also provides a help line (1- 800- MEDICARE) for those without computer access.

Information to compare health facilities is becoming more readily available. Currently HEALTH’s website includes comparisons based on CMS data from nursing homes “Nursing Home Clinical Measures”, home health care “Home Health Clinical Measures”, and End Stage Renal Disease “Dialysis Facility Compare.” Rhode Island modified the federal Nursing Home and Home Health Clinical measures to reflect the percentage (rate) of patients that achieved a specific performance outcome and compares it to national reference scored. For more information about these reports go to: www.health.ri.gov/chic/performance/. The Rhode Island Health Care Quality Program, developed with the support of hospitals, was enacted in 1998 .