The tools available to hospitals, medical professionals, and consumers for evaluating facilities on quality of care, safety, and other measures is growing.
The U.S. government posts data on readmissions, mortality, and other measures on its Hospital Compare site. That data may be used by others to build their own ranking systems. In June, the Leapfrog Group introduced "Hospital Safety Score" which assigns letter grades based on safety metrics. In July, Consumer Reports' hospital safety ratings were rolled out.
To see how top hospitals measured up across three ratings systems, we compare hospital safety scores from the Leapfrog Group and Consumer Reports alongside the overall rankings of U.S. News & World Report's 17 top-rated hospitals.
Methodology
Although the 17 hospitals and healthcare institutions listed in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll represent an overall ranking, with the hospitals in the list ranking near the top in 6 or more specialty rankings, 35% of its measurement is based on reputation.
U.S. News said its 2012 rankings involved a change in methodology to include more clinical data from healthcare institutions, but the variation between certain institutions’ U.S. News standings and their safety scores from The Leapfrog Group and Consumer Reports raise questions around the prestige given to the Best Hospitals lists. CR and Leapfrog also give a few institutions opposing scores.
The Hospital Safety Scores were issued by The Leapfrog Group to demonstrate which hospitals are the least, and which are the most, likely to cause avoidable patient harm. Scores are represented by an A,B,C,D, or F letter grade.
Leapfrog determines its scores through a combination of responses to its own surveys as well as publicly available data from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Data involved in determining a Leapfrog Group safety rating include:
- CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) – Leapfrog data
- IPS (ICU Physician Staffing) – Leapfrog data
- 8 Safe Practices – Leapfrog data
- 5 SCIP (Surgical Care Improvement Project) measures – CMS data
- 5 HACs (Hospital Acquired Conditions) – CMS data
- 6 PSIs (Patient Safety Indicators) – CMS data
In the August issue of their magazine, Consumer Reports rates 1,159 hospitals in 44 states. CR hospital safety scores, which are meant to represent how likely a patient might be to suffer avoidable harm caused by a hospital, differ from Leapfrog's because they include CT imaging, Medicare's 30-day readmission rates, and results from the HCAHPS survey as safety measures. More than half of the hospitals CR rated scored under 50 points. 158 hospitals scored at least 60. According to CR, hospitals did not score well because of two major issues: readmissions and communication.
Sources:
>>U.S. News & World Report: Best Hospitals 2012-13: the Honor Roll
>>Leapfrog Group: Hospital Safety Scores
>>Consumer Reports: Hospital Safety Ratings