Related Reports: Inpatient Report.
Related News: Oklahoma Hospital Association Reports on Share
Share Medical Center participates in reporting quality indicators to healthcare regulatory bodies at national and state levels. These agencies, which include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and the Oklahoma Department of Health, have established indicators which are designed to capture episodes of quality care for Share Memorial Hospital and Share Convalescent Home patients and residents.
Currently, nursing homes and hospitals are eligible for additional reimbursement from the state and Medicare according to their quality outcomes, a practice that is referred to as “Pay for Performance”.
Share’s outcomes are reported to the public on the internet, along with all the other participating hospitals and nursing homes. Consumers are encouraged to learn about each facility’s ratings as a means to help choose hospitals and nursing homes. Hopefully, they will use the information from these ratings to learn about the facilities, but not actually compare facilities based on the ratings.
Quality Indicators Misconceptions
It should be pointed out that the ratings can be misleading with regard to the quality indicators. A poor score doesn’t necessarily equate to poor care.
Example 1
One indicator is that patients who come to the emergency department having a heart attack should be offered aspirin to help reduce the severity of the heart attack. This has become standard practice across the nation.
The facility’s rating can be reduced for this indicator in two ways: 1) the patient was not offered aspirin, or 2) the patient was offered aspirin, but for any number of reasons, the reviewing agency could not find the documentation to verify the aspirin was offered.
Both of these represent opportunities for the facility to improve, but only one actually indicates poor care. The problem is consumers can’t determine which of these may have occurred and could potentially form an inaccurate opinion of a facility as a result.
Also, as a rural healthcare provider, it is not uncommon for Share to be unrated for some indicators due to the relatively low number of cases we see as compared to the rest of the state or nation. So, when researching with smaller facilities, it is best to confirm the findings on the reports with knowledgeable sources, such as representatives from the hospital or nursing home in question.
Example 2
Using the example of heart attack again, all facilities are rated regardless of the number of cases treated. However, not all cases are reported since some heart attacks are different than others and alternative treatment methods are more appropriate.
This can be misleading as it may appear that the hospital doesn’t treat patients for heart attack, when the truth is they do.
Low volume can be additionally misleading as Medicare recognizes that fewer than 25 cases of heart attack are not enough to reliably measure quality indicators. So, consumers must realize that these scores may be inaccurate.
Patient Experience
In addition to quality indicators, a percentage of patients and residents are surveyed each month to determine their personal satisfaction with the services they received.
The patient experience deals with how well physicians and nurses communicated your care with you, how clean and comfortable the facilities were, pain control, and whether or not patients would recommend the facility to friends and family.
As with the quality indicator reports, these reports may be misleading and are not necessarily the best way to compare facilities. However, it is useful information to give you a general idea of how others feel they were treated at the facilities.
Why Bother?
Share Medical Center uses this information for quality improvement measures. Whether it is for legitimate care concerns and customer service or for documentation policies and procedures, these scores and ratings are important to the medical center.
As “Pay for Performance” spreads throughout the healthcare industry, the fiscal health of hospitals and nursing homes will continue to be impacted by these ratings. Currently, nursing homes can receive up to an extra $4.36 per day per resident through Medicaid, and hospitals can receive up to a 2% adjustment in reimbursement through Medicare for their quality indicators.
It is worth noting that Share Medical Center looks at hundreds of quality indicators and customer service items for all departments and services offered by the Medical Center. This is in addition to that which is required by regulations. Share uses this information to continuously improve its services and outcomes above and beyond the expectations of regulatory agencies.
See Share’s Ratings
Oklahoma Nursing Home Ratings
Medicare Nursing Home Compare Website
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