The following websites provide data and information on the quality and safety of healthcare and healthcare services in Massachusetts and beyond.
Hospital Compare offers information on how well hospitals care for patients who have certain medical conditions or are undergoing surgical procedures. The site also provides patient satisfaction survey results from recent hospital stays. Hospital Compare was created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health and Human Services and other members of the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA).
- Navigating the Hospital Compare Website - TUTORIAL
In the new healthcare reform environment, measuring the quality of care provided to patients and then reporting it openly to the public is of paramount importance. Such measurements drive quality improvement at hospitals and affect healthcare payments from both public and private payers. And research shows that patients who actively engage more in their healthcare choices have better outcomes and experiences.
Through Hospital Compare, the public can take an even deeper dive to find data on their hospitals relating to patients' experiences, readmission and infection rates, the delivery of timely and effective care, and more. And the public can compare up to three hospitals at once and see how they measure-up to each other, as well as to state and national averages. Read more...
Click here to view the hospital compare instructional video…
Home Health Compare offers information about the quality of care provided by "Medicare-certified" home health agencies throughout the nation. "Medicare-certified" means the home health agency is approved by Medicare and meets certain Federal health and safety requirements. Home Health Compare was created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Joint Commission (Quality Check) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to meeting certain performance standards. Every acute care hospital in Massachusetts undergoes Joint Commission accreditation reviews. Quality Check® is The Joint Commission's search engine to locate healthcare organizations in the United States. Among the information provided on this website are:
- Accreditation Quality Reports that provide detailed information about an organization's performance and how it compares to similar organizations;
- The organization's accreditation decision; and
- The effective dates of the accreditation award.
Healthcare Compass - Your Guide to Quality Care in Massachusetts This website can help you search for primary care doctors' offices in Massachusetts that provide the kinds of high-quality care most important to you. This includes how well doctors communicate with patients, and if they are providing you the right tests and treatments.
Department of Public Health/MassDAC Cardiac Surgery Studies provides information about the relative performance of cardiac surgery programs. Hospital-specific mortality rate data is provided for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI, often called angioplasty). The website's reports are provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health under contract with the Massachusetts Data Analysis Center (Mass-DAC) of the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
Board of Registration in Medicine - MA Physician-Profile-Find-Doctor website contains profiles of all licensed Bay State physicians, including their education, training, experience, and any actions the Board has taken. The Quality and Patient Safety Division newsletter, FIRST Do No Harm, is a vehicle for sharing quality and patient safety initiatives of Massachusetts healthcare facilities and the work of the Quality and Patient Safety Division and Committee.
Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) provides reliable information to help physicians improve the quality of care they provide to their patients, and helps consumers take an active role in making informed decisions about their healthcare, particularly about physicians and physician groups.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of healthcare throughout the world. IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping healthcare systems put those ideas into action.
Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors is a public-private partnership whose mission is to improve patient safety and eliminate medical errors in Massachusetts. The Coalition's membership includes consumer organizations, state agencies, and hospitals, professional associations for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, long-term care workers, as well as health plans, employers, policymakers, and researchers. The Coalition leverages the efforts of all of these organizations to accomplish the shared goal of improving patient safety. The Coalition promotes a systems-oriented approach to improving patient safety, identifying the causes of medical errors, and developing and supporting implementation of strategies for prevention.
Healthcentric Advisors is one of fourteen organizations nationwide awarded a 5-year contract by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the newly restructured Quality Innovation Network Quality Improvement (QIN-QIO) program.
Healthcentric Advisors as the prime contractor, in partnership with Qualidigm, are serving as the New England QIN-QIO (NE QIN-QIO).
Our teams of clinical, analytic and quality improvement experts provide tools, education and assistance to support our health care partners in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) is a resource for individuals and organizations committed to improving the safety of patients. NPSF is unwavering in its determined and committed focus on uniting disciplines and organizations across the continuum of care, championing a collaborative, inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach.
U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) website includes access to clinical information, research findings, consumer/patient healthcare information, quality and patient safety information, data and surveys.
Why NotThe Best? was created and is maintained by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation working toward a high performance U.S. health system. It is a free resource for healthcare professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures of healthcare quality. The site enables organizations to compare their performance against that of peer organizations, against a range of benchmarks, and over time. Case studies and improvement tools spotlight successful improvement strategies of the nation's top performers.
PatientCareLink's Healthcare Provider Data:
Report & Recommendation of the Massachusetts Expert Panel on End-of-Life (EOL) Care
This report describes the many gaps in EOL care.
The EOL Expert Panel has identified, and makes recommendations for both immediate and long-term steps that must be taken to address them.