2017 Hospital Value Report
I am pleased to announce that last week the Alliance released a new members-only report on Hospital Value.
The report looks at the three components of value in health care: quality, patient experience and cost. The Alliance ranks 48 hospitals based on the results for eight mortality measures and five patient safety measures using three years of publicly available data. These thirteen indicators were developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), are endorsed by the National Quality Forum and are standardized for national use, relying on approved risk-adjustment methods to account for differences in patient sickness.
We also include patient-reported ratings from the most widely used hospital patient experience survey — the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). This report focuses on an overall rating of the hospital, specifically the percent of respondents that would definitely recommend the hospital to family and friends.
Finally, the Alliance uses publicly available, hospital-specific data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to look at the amount of money each hospital charged for the services they provided to Medicare beneficiaries for inpatient stays. This analysis relies upon a gross charge index. The U.S. average is listed as 1.0, so that the hospitals in this report show variation from that index.
As with all of our measurement reporting, we worked closely with our committees, including the Quality Improvement Committee, to ensure that our methodology and approach were valid and fair.
This report is available only for Alliance members. For the first time, the Alliance is asking a modest fee — $150—for this report from members whose membership contribution is less than $7,500 a year.
We believe that the Hospital Value report has worth for multiple stakeholders: for providers interested in better understanding hospitals to whom they refer; for purchasers, brokers and consultants seeking to inform benefit strategies; and for others in health care seeking insight into the market.
This brief builds on our previous work and offers a unique perspective on hospital care at the intersection of the three key elements of high value: quality, patient experience and price. While it is just one snapshot of value in our state, we believe that it helps to advance the conversation about value and how we can work together to achieve it.
To purchase this report or to inquire about membership, please email ContactUs@wahealthalliance.org. I look forward to continuing the dialogue about how we can work together to improve the value of care for all the residents of our state.