HCP’s Sharon-Lise Normand, together with Yale University researchers and colleagues from the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care, developed recently released hospital mortality measures for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Normand participated in the press conference at which Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced the new measures. (Click here for the CMS press release.)

The US government's Hospital Compare website now lets consumers see how risk-adjusted 30-day mortality outcomes for heart failure and heart attack at individual hospitals stack up against those of other hospitals. This effort is part of the CMS goal to improve the quality and transparency of hospital care by giving the American public and health care professionals better access to important hospital data.

Normand and Yale researchers used hospital claims data and risk-adjustment models employing state-of-the-art statistical methods to report on mortality. The investigators validated their approach using models based on detailed medical record data. The measures developed by Normand and colleagues have widespread consensus and endorsement by the National Quality Forum, the Hospital Quality Alliance, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association.

The announcement of the updated information was heavily covered by the media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, ABC News, Reuters, and many local news outlets, which reported on their local hospitals’ rankings.