Comparing Organizations with Benchmark Data
Clinical quality measures (CQMs) are tools that help to measure and track the quality of care provided in hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care. These measures were developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and use data to examine the ability to deliver high-quality care. CQMs are used to measure many aspects of patient care, including clinical processes, health outcomes, patient safety, and adherence to clinical guidelines. Measuring and reporting CQMs helps to ensure that a health care system is delivering safe, timely, efficient, effective, equitable, and patient-centered care. Hospital Compare collects this data from participating hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care agencies across the United States. The data is reported on the websites with links provided so that the information can be reviewed by prospective patients, insurers, and the public. As nurses, many of us participate in the implementation of the “core measures” in our facility and may recognize when we have a “fall out” or do not meet that standard. In this Assignment, a review of your facility and another that you consider comparable or a competitor to your own will facilitate the nurses’ role in quality improvement and patient safety issues that impact the clinical setting.
For this Assignment:
Explore the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Care Compare site and “About this tool” site provided in this week’s Resources.
Select two local organizations using benchmark data to focus on for this Assignment.
The organizations you select should be those with similar demographics and services that measure similar things. For example, if you try to compare a critical access hospital and a trauma center, the services offered are very different.
Compare the performances of these two organizations to each other and to state and national averages.
If you work or reside outside of the U. S., select an area in the U.S. that is similar demographically, if possible, and identify organizations within that area.
Find one scholarly article that could explain the differences you observed.
Download the Assignment Template located in the Learning Resources.
Complete the Assignment Template that addresses the following:
Describe the two organizations you selected and explain why you chose them.
Summarize how your local organization compares to the local competitor, state averages, and national averages using the benchmark data from the CMS Care Compare site in this week’s Resources.
Analyze the factors that impact these performance measures and describe any differences present. If there are no differences, explain why this might be the case. Find one scholarly article that could explain either the difference or similarities in performance measures.
Explain how these differences in performance measures might impact patient outcomes.
Analyze the effect of publicly reported data on the quality and safety of care for the type of organizations that you compared. Select hospitals, nursing homes, OR home health agencies, and analyze the effect of the data listed under that organization:
For Hospitals:
Patient Survey Results
Timely and Effective Care
Readmissions, Complications, and Deaths
Use of Medical Imaging
Linking Quality to Payment
Medicare Volume
For Nursing Homes:
Overall Rating
Health Inspections
Staffing
Quality Measures
For Home Health Agencies:
Quality of Patient Care
Patient Survey Results
Finally, address how this would not happen without standardized data.
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses & health care professionals (6th ed.). Pearson.
Chapter 3, “Effective and Ethical Use of Data and Information” (pp. 50–57)
Chapter 14, “Information Networks and Information Exchange (pp. 274–280)
Chapter 15, “The Role of Standardized Terminology and Language in Informatics” (pp. 293–315)
-The two organizations I selected are Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, Nj, and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, NJ.
