Website aimed at consumers highlights hospital quality data

The Nevada Hospital Association will launch a new consumer-focused Quality TransparencyWeb site that provides statewide information for NHA-member hospitals. The new website is free and accessible to everyone and was created with the goal of giving consumers information on the quality of health care so that they can make informed choices.

The Web site can be found at www.nvhos pitalquality.net and features include the following:

Consolidation of publicly reported data

Comparison of similar types of facilities including rural-to-rural and urban-to-urban

A FAQs page along with embedded Patient Tips

A mobile-enabled Web site to research information ‘on the go’

Access to a clinical professional via email with comments or concerns

Availability to trend data over time

Capability to compare Nevada to national benchmarks

“As concerns about the quality of health care continue to grow and as we explore ways to improve patient safety, the need for transparency has become even more important,” Bill Welch, president and CEO of the NHA, said.

“For the healthcare consumer, the site provides access to provider quality of care and outcomes information to ‘shop’ for medical services and make informed care decisions. The site can also be used to educate state policymakers, regulators and the people who influence them by providing concise, comprehensive and easy-to-understand information.”

The NHA Quality Transparency Web site was developed with input from a subcommittee made up of NHA-member hospitals and several consumers who provided a fresh perspective to the language and presentation. The website will display Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services measures, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality measures, hospital-acquired infections, surgical site infections and adverse events.

Some of the measures will be from publicly reported data and other measures will be self-reported from NHA member hospitals and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repository, the National Health Care Safety Network. Data will be updated on a quarterly-to-annual basis.