Quality Care

There is increasingly more public information available about hospitals, doctors and other healthcare providers on the Internet. A number of different agencies evaluate, compare and rate hospitals. These ratings can be a good source of information for healthcare consumers and many of them provide reliable data that can help people make informed decisions about where to seek care.

But, there are some things that should be considered in reviewing these ratings and reports.

Is the information current?
Most data reported on the Internet is historical data. It could be several months old or it could be a few years old. If the data is not recent, it may not accurately reflect the care being provided by a hospital today.

What is included in the data?
In some cases, data may be about only one hospital service or even just a small part of the treatment provided for a certain condition. Consumers should look for comprehensive evaluations of hospital services that take many factors into consideration.

In some cases, data may represent only a short period of time – some reports only include patients cared for in one calendar quarter, limiting the sample size used in the data.

Some reports include only certain types of patients. For example, if only Medicare patients are included in a report, the data would not reflect all of the care provided to a hospital’s patients.

When hospitals are compared using percentages, it is important to know how much data is included in the percentage rating. Data from one hospital may include only a small number of patients with a certain medical condition, while another hospital in the study may treat a much larger number of patients with the same condition. When that happens, percentage ratings can be skewed and misleading.

Who is reporting the data?
There are several reputable agencies evaluating and rating hospitals. Consumers should check the credentials of any group reporting healthcare quality data.

Texas Vista Medical Center voluntarily reports information to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on nearly two-dozen activities related to care for patients receiving specific services. These measures demonstrate how often the hospital provided the recommended care and treatment for patients with a heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia and for patients having surgery.