-The percentage of heart attack patients given aspirin when they arrive at the emergency room;
-The amount of time it takes for a heart attack patient to receive clot-busting drugs;
-The percentage of heart attack patients who received clot-busting drugs within 30 minutes of arriving in the emergency room;
-The average time it takes a heart attack patient to receive an electrocardiogram test to assess heart damage once they arrive in the emergency room;

-The average time it takes for a heart attack patient to transfer to another hospital to receive a coronary angioplasty as acute treatment for a heart attack;
-The percentage of surgery patients who receive an antibiotic within one hour before surgery to help prevent infection; and
-The percentage of surgery patients who receive the right kind of antibiotic to help prevent infection.

The OPPS CY 2009 final rule added four imaging efficiency measures to the seven original measures for reporting to receive the full update in CY 2010.

"For the future, CMS will be looking at ways to strengthen the relationship between payment and quality, especially by developing policies that will not pay for adverse health care events that could have been prevented if the hospital followed evidence-based guidelines," said Weems. "We expect these policies will improve the quality of care not just for people with Medicare, but for all patients who receive services in hospital outpatient departments."


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