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24 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT CMS Changed Its Overall Star Rating Formula — Here's What's New By Heather Punke C MS updated its Hospital Compare database in December, which includ- ed an update to its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program. is was the second time the agency updated the overall quality star ratings aer initially launching the program in July 2016 and up- dating rankings in October. CMS changed the formula for calculating hospitals' star ratings in the December up- date, lowering the number of quality mea- sures used from 64 measures in seven cate- gories in October to 57 measures in the same seven categories: • Mortality (7 measures) • Safety of care (8 measures) • Readmission (8 measures) • Patient experience (11 measures) • Effectiveness of care (11 measures) • Timeliness of care (7 measures) • Efficient use of medical imaging (5 mea- sures) CMS removed the following measures in De- cember compared to October: • CAC-3, home management plan of care document given to patient/caregiver • STK-1, venous thromboembolism pro- phylaxis • STK-6, discharged on statin medication • STK-8, stroke education • VTE-1, venous thromboembolism pro- phylaxis • VTE-2, intensive care unit venous thromboembolism prophylaxis • VTE-3, venous thromboembolism pa- tients with anticoagulation overlap ther- apy Also in December, CMS announced it would update the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program only twice in 2017, in- stead of quarterly as previously announced. The updates will occur in July and Decem- ber. In the new update, significantly fewer hospi- tals earned five stars than in July or October. See the breakdown below. • Five stars: 83 in December (112 in Oc- tober) • Four stars: 946 (970) • ree stars: 1,794 (1,789) • Two stars: 694 (701) • One star: 112 (121) Additionally, 969 hospitals in December did not have enough data to receive an overall star rating. In October, that number sat at 937. n 5 Things to Know About Healthgrades' 2017 Distinguished Hospital Awards By Brian Zimmerman H ealthgrades — a comprehensive online resource for information about physicians and hospitals — announced the 258 recipients of its Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence for 2017 in January. "Today more than 30 percent of people who choose a physi- cian consult Healthgrades to better understand their options for care and place a high value on the outcomes and compli- cations at the hospitals where the provider practices or treats patients," said Brad Bowman, MD, CMO of Healthgrades. "The hospitals that have achieved this distinction stand out from their peers because of their commitment to high quali- ty clinical outcomes for their patients." Here are five things to know about Healthgrades' 2017 dis- tinguished hospital awards. 1. The award is given to hospitals among the top 5 percent in the nation in care quality performance across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures. 2. The 2017 awards are based on the assessment of inpa- tient data from Medicare medical claims records from 2013 to 2015. 3. During this time period, if all other hospitals performed at the same level across 19 procedures and conditions as those distinguished by Healthgrades, 160,322 lives may have potentially been saved. 4. Patients treated at these distinguished hospitals have a 26.2 percent lower risk of dying on average. 5. For these six common inpatient conditions, patients treated at award-recipient hospitals had significantly lower risk of dying. • Heart attack: 22.5 percent lower risk of dying • Heart failure: 30.5 percent lower risk of dying • Pneumonia: 36.7 percent lower risk of dying • Stroke: 25.0 percent lower risk of dying • Sepsis: 25.1 percent lower risk of dying • Respiratory failure: 24.4 percent lower risk of dying n