Medicare Data

Hospitals | Home Health | Nursing Home

The Institute of Medicine’s Six Aims to Improve Care

Hospitals

Hospital Public Reporting (this link goes outside of the afmc.org website and will open a new browser)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published hospital data on quality of care for Medicare, Medicaid or private health insurance hospitals. The data is published on the Hospital Compare website. This information is one indication of how well hospitals succeed in helping patients to achieve their highest level of care provided by a hospital. This website has quality measures on how often hospitals provide recommended care known to get the best results for most adult patients being treated for a heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia, or having surgery. Additionally, these measures give hospitals meaningful data to assist them in improving quality of care.

Arkansas Hospital Score Card

The Arkansas Hospital Score Card represents quarterly benchmark reports for the 4th quarter of 2004 compared to the most recent quarter for all of the inpatient performance measures (AMI, HF, PNE and SIP). The benchmark rates are calculated using the "Achievable Benchmarks of Care" methodology; for more information please see selected references listed on the Arkansas Score Card.  The data source is the hospital self-abstracted data (acute care and critical access hospitals) reported to the CMS clinical warehouse — thus very large denominators. The Arkansas Score Card reports Arkansas and national average performance and Arkansas and national benchmark rates. Please note that none of the SIP measures are required for the annual payment update, so only about 1,600 hospitals nationwide report these measures.

Appropriate Care Measures (ACM)

Appropriate care measures are a new way of reporting hospital performance on Medicare quality measures related to congestive heart failure, pneumonia and acute myocardial infarction. ACMs reflect the percentage of patients who received all the recognized components of care for a specific condition. High performance on several components of care, combined with a low performance on a single element, can result in a low score on that ACM.

Home Health

Home Health Public Reporting (this link goes outside of the afmc.org website and will open a new browser)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published home health data on quality of care measures for Medicare and/or Medicaid certified agencies. The data is published on the Home Health Compare website.  This information is one indication of how well home health agencies succeed in helping patients to achieve their highest level of independence in the home. The 10 publicly reported quality measures provide information to consumers when making decisions about home health care. Additionally, these measures give home health agencies meaningful data to assist them in improving quality of care.

AFMC has provided state and national rates for the 10 publicly reported quality measures and trending graphs for the two selected quality measures, Acute Care Hospitalization and Improvement in Management of Oral Medications. These table and graphs represent the same data that is posted on Home Health Compare.  Also, it provides the same quarterly basis time frames as Home Health Compare, beginning with the time frame ending Aug. 31, 2004.

Does your agency have one of the five lowest ACH rates in your region?

AFMC has provided the fifth-lowest Acute Care Hospitalization rate for each region of the state. The national rate and your agency’s rates are posted on Home Health Compare.

Nursing Home

Nursing Home Public Reporting (this link goes outside of the afmc.org website and will open a new browser)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published nursing home data on quality of care for Medicare and/or Medicaid certified facilities. The data is published on the Nursing Home Compare website. The data on this website describes nursing home characteristics, quality measures, inspection results and nursing staff information. The quality measures reports fifteen publicly reported measures. These quality measures provide information to consumers making decisions about nursing home care. Additionally, these measures give nursing homes meaningful data to assist them in improving quality of care.

Nursing Home Table and Trending Graphs

AFMC has provided state and national rates for the 15 publicly reported quality measures and trending graphs for the CMS' four selected quality measures: physical restraints, high-risk pressure ulcer, depression and pain. This table and graphs will be provided on a quarterly basis, covering the time from the baseline of the second quarter of 2004 through the most current time frame.