Researchers examined Hospital Compare data from approximately 3,000 hospitals reporting adherence rate to Surgical Care Improvement Project protocols, quality measures to reduce surgical site infections. They separated the hospitals by referral region.
They found 97 percent of hospital referral regions had an SCIP score of 1, indicating at least a 95 percent adherence rate to SCIP measures. In 93 percent of referral regions, approximately half of the hospitals of that referral region were within five percent of the median score.
Researchers said the lack of variation in scores makes it difficult for patients to differentiate between care quality of hospitals in their region, according to a Center for Advancing Health report discussing the study.
They suggest public reporting should be improved to provide more transparent information to positively impact patient decision making, according to the study.
More Articles on Data Reporting:
Study: Quality Performance Measures Have Low Reliability
When Hospitals Share Data, Who Benefits?
MU Requirements to Double Data Sent to Public Health Departments
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