Quality and Accountability

How Does the Quality & Accountability Study Work?

StudyThe Consortium’s study is one of the most rigorous available. It uses Joint Commission’s four core measures (acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and the surgical care improvement project) as part of its effectiveness score along with readmission rates. It looks at mortality not just across seven major service lines, but also comprehensively across 27 service lines. It investigates nine of 23 patient safety indicators from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality. It evaluates the efficiency of the health system based on direct costs and length of stay compared to national benchmarks. Finally, it tabulates patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ HCAHPS surveys sent to patient homes.