The Nebraska Heart Quality & Safety section provides you with information on how well hospitals care for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures, and results from a survey of patients about the quality of care they received during a recent hospital stay. This information will help you compare the quality of care hospitals provide. Talk to your doctor about this information to help you, your family, and your friends make your best hospital care decisions.

What are the Hospital Process of Care Measures?

A process of care measure shows how often hospitals give recommended treatments known to get the best results for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures. Information about these treatments are taken from the patients' records and converted into a percentage. This is one way to compare the quality of care that hospitals give.

The hospital process of care measures include:

• Eleven measures related to heart attack care
• Four measures related to heart failure care
• Ten measures related to the surgical care improvement project

The measures are based on scientific evidence about treatments that are known to get the best results. Health care experts and researchers are constantly evaluating the evidence to make sure that guidelines and measures are kept up-to-date. Sometimes guidelines and measures are revised to reflect new evidence. 

What are the Hospital Outcome of Care Measures?

"Outcome of Care Measures" show what happened after patients with certain conditions received hospital care. The mortality rates focus on whether patients died within 30 days of their hospitalization. The rates of readmission focus on whether patients were hospitalized again within 30 days. Mortality rates and rates of readmission show whether a hospital is doing its best to prevent complications, teach patients at discharge, and ensure patients make a smooth transition to their home or another setting, such as a nursing home.

The hospital mortality rates and rates of readmission are based on people with Medicare who are 65 and older. These rates are calculated using Medicare enrollment, claims records, and a complex statistical procedure. The mortality rates and rates of readmission are "risk-adjusted", meaning that the calculations take into account how sick patients were when they went in for their initial hospitalization. When the rates are risk-adjusted, it helps make comparisons fair and meaningful.