About PHCQA:
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who is participating in the PHCQA?
A: Alliance participants include the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) which represents more than 225 hospitals and health systems across the state, the state's four Blue Cross plans (Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Capital BlueCross, Highmark Inc., and Independence Blue Cross), the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council (DVHC) of HAP, the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania (HCWP), the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and Representatives from the Governor's Office of Health Care Reform and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are also participating in the Alliance..
Q: What is special about the PHCQA website?
A: The PHCQA website compiles selected outcome and quality data from CMS, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, and the Joint Commission for Pennsylvania's general acute care hospitals in a single location designed to help patients and consumers make better health care choices.
Q: What quality information is available on the website?
A: Visitors to the site can see hospital quality and outcome data in four broad clinical categories: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and prevention of healthcare-associated infections. Within each category, users can generate reports on how a hospital scores on specific actions that contribute to better clinical outcomes, for example, seeing how many heart attack patients received aspirin within 24 hours of their arrival at the hospital. The site also allows users to compare hospitals to one another, and hospital performance over time.
Q: Where does PHCQA get its information on hospital performance?
A: The data come from publicly available sources that hospitals already report to. These are government and accrediting bodies, such as the federal Medicare program (CMS), the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), and the Joint Commission (the national hospital-accrediting agency).
Q: How does the PHCQA differ from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4)?
A: The Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance is a coalition of participating Pennsylvania health care organizations, including providers and insurers, focused on developing a consistent standardized approach to hospital quality measurement. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is an independent state agency formed under Pennsylvania statute (Act 89, as amended by Act 14) in order to address rapidly growing health care costs. PHC4 is also tasked with 1) collecting, analyzing and making available to the public data about the cost and quality of health care in Pennsylvania; 2) to study, upon request, the issue of access to care for those Pennsylvanians who are uninsured; 3) to review and make recommendations about proposed or existing mandated health insurance benefits upon request of the legislative or executive branches of the Commonwealth.
Q: How will this initiative coordinate with existing hospital quality improvement programs at the state and federal level?
A: The PHCQA is not designed to replace or supplant existing state and federal quality and safety data requirements, but rather to work together to develop a common understanding of the data and measures that providers are already required to report in Pennsylvania.
Q: How does the PHCQA site relate to other quality reporting sites, such as The Leapfrog Group or HealthGrades?
A: Many other websites provide a wide-range of hospital and health care quality data. While these websites do provide state-specific data, PHCQA's website focuses exclusively on general acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania and it is the only site that represents a collaborative effort among the state's hospitals, insurers, doctors, and regulators to create consistent and uniform approach to measuring hospital quality. The site is entirely free of any charge to all users.
Q: How are PHCQA participants supporting this effort?
A: PHCQA represents the collaborative efforts of Pennsylvania's hospitals, its Blue Cross insurers, the PA Medical Society, and government regulators and policy makers. Collectively they are committed to improving quality and safety, and empowering the public to make informed health care decisions. PHCQA participants are supporting this effort by their contributions of time and funding to PHCQA's work, and by promoting the availability of the website to their patients, subscribers, and community members.
Q: Who can I contact for more information?
A: Gerald Miller, Chair, PA Health Care Quality Alliance at Gerald.Miller@crozer.org or (610) 338-8211; Erik Muther, Executive Director, PA Health Care Quality Alliance at Erik.Muther@phcqa.org or (215) 241-3097.
