Inpatient Measures

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the nation’s hospitals work collaboratively to publicly report hospital quality performance data collected under the various hospital quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs on Care Compare website located at www.medicare.gov/care-compare/ and the Provider Data Catalog on data.cms.gov.

Care Compare displays hospital performance data in a consistent, unified manner to ensure the availability of credible information about the care delivered in the nation’s hospitals. 

Care Compare currently provides quality measure information on:

• Process of care measures focus on steps that should be followed to provide good care. These measures show whether a health care provider gives recommended care based on guidelines, standards of care or practice parameters; that is, the treatment known to give the best results for most patients with a particular condition. These measures convert patient medical record information into percentages and/or rates of performance. Providing this information allows consumers to compare the performance of a health care provider to other providers in their state and the nation.
• Outcome measures are measures designed to reflect the results of care or a change in the patient's health, rather than whether or not specific treatment or intervention was performed.
• Structural measures are measure that assesses features of a health care provider or clinician related to its ability to provide good health care. An example of a structural measure would be whether a hospital participated in a state or national program aimed at improving maternal and child health.
• Patient-reported outcome-based performance measures are measure that report the patient’s health condition that comes directly from the patient, with interpretation of the patient’s response by a healthcare provider or anyone else.
• Population health quality measures consider the quality of a group’s overall health and well-being. These measures provide an opportunity for healthcare providers to work together to improve the health outcomes of the people they serve. Examples of measure topics include access to care, healthcare outcomes, coordination of care and community services, health behaviors, preventative care and screening, and utilization of health services.
• Patient experience of care is measures by a national, standardized survey of hospital patients about their experiences during a recent inpatient hospital stay. This is also referred to as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems).