Important new information was added today to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Hospital Compare Web site, that reports how frequently patients return to a hospital after being discharged, a possible indicator of how well the facility did the first time around. The site is www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

On average, 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries who are discharged from a hospital today will re-enter the hospital within a month. Reducing the rate of hospital readmissions to improve quality and achieve savings are key components of President Obama's health care reform agenda.

"The President and Congress have both identified the reduction of readmissions as a target area for health reform," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "When we reduce readmissions, we improve the quality of care patients receive and cut health care costs."
With the update announced today, Hospital Compare will provide better data on the previously posted mortality rates for individual hospitals, as well as the new data on 30-day readmissions for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. Previously, Hospital Compare had provided only mortality rates for these three conditions.

Research has shown that hospital readmissions are reducing the quality of health care while increasing hospital costs. Hospital Compare data show that for patients admitted to a hospital for heart attack treatment, 19.9 percent of them will return to the hospital within 30 days, 24.5 percent of patients admitted for heart failure will return to the hospital within 30 days, and 18.2 percent of patients admitted for pneumonia will return to the hospital within 30 days.

"Providing readmission rates by hospital will give consumers even better information with which to compare local providers," said Charlene Frizzera, CMS Acting Administrator. "Readmission rates will help consumers identify those providers in the community who are furnishing high-value health care with the best results."

CMS has been tracking the outcomes of hospital care since 2007 when Hospital Compare debuted 30-day mortality rates for heart attack and heart failure. Thirty-day mortality rates for pneumonia were added to the Web site in 2008.

This year, CMS has changed the way it calculates the mortality data to provide even better information to consumers. In 2007 and 2008, Medicare used only one year of claims data to compute mortality, while the rates added to the Web site today encompass three full years of claims data (from July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2008). Although this means that consumers cannot compare data from last year's rate with this year's rate, the expanded data set should provide a clearer picture of how well hospitals are performing.

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