Publicly reported measures of hospital quality may not be yet changing consumer choices, but they are driving hospitals to improve their quality, according to a Mathematica Policy Research survey of hospital executives. (Click here to download the results.) Asked to gauge the impact of Hospital Compare, CMS’s hospital quality initiative that ranks hospitals on 20 quality-of-care measures, the majority of respondents said that their scores had consistently improved over time, but with 60% reporting some scores below the 50th benchmark, there is room for improvement. Over half said they had increased the number of staff dedicated to quality improvement and 60% upgraded computer capability to meet data reporting requirements. Among the barriers to improving quality scores were getting staff to accurate document their care, failing to engage physicians in quality improvement efforts, and lack of financial resources to implement quality improvement projects.
