The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 20 announced additions to the Hospital Compare consumer web site, including a mortality measure for pneumonia and, for the first time on Hospital Compare, publicly reported measures for hospital care of children. Previously, Hospital Compare had provided only quality information based on hospitalizations of adult patients. The measure on pneumonia 30-day mortality joins existing 30-day mortality measures for heart failure and heart attack, which CMS began reporting last summer.
The addition of patient experience data and Medicare payment and volume information in March 2008 caused the number of page views to jump from an average of 600,000 per month to more than 2.5 million per month. Page views for this year to date have totaled more than 20 million. Read the press release.
