Quality Measures
The Progress & Performance Report contains 20 health care quality measures reported by general acute care hospitals to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Joint Commission, and the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. While most hospitals have data available for all measures in the report, some do not because of the health care services they offer, the low number of patients, or their Joint Commission accreditation status. Access to health quality data from multiple sources in one location is an advantage that PHCQA is able to provide the public.
The measures in this report fall into four major clinical areas or topics: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and infection prevention. The initial Progress & Performance Report focuses on these areas as they represent some of the most common and most commonly measured services hospitals provide. However, additional measures will be incorporated into future versions of the reports.
Process Measures vs. Outcome Measures
Each measure on this website is categorized as either a process or outcome measure as indicated by the heading above the measure and associated performance data. Process measures assess the quality of a specific health care services provided to an individual. Providing Aspirin to a heart attack patient upon arrival to the hospital is an example of a process measure because it measures whether a process or step took place or not. On the other hand, outcome measures assess performance on a broader scale. Outcome measures gauge the comprehensive result of multiple health care services provided to an individual. Readmission (to the hospital) and mortality (death) rates are examples of outcome measures. More detailed descriptions of each type of measure are provided below:
Process Measure — a process measure assesses a health care service provided to, or on behalf of, a patient. Process measures are often used to assess adherence to recommendations for clinical practice based on evidence or consensus. To a greater extent than outcome measures, process measures can identify specific areas of care that may require improvement.
Outcome Measure — an outcome of care is a health state of a patient resulting from health care. An outcome measure can be used to assess quality of care to the extent that health care services influence the likelihood of desired health outcomes. Outcome-based measures of quality reflect the cumulative impact of multiple processes of care. Outcome measures may suggest specific areas of care that may require quality improvement, but further investigation is typically necessary to determine the specific structures or processes that should be changed.
