CMS adds children's health care information to Hospital Compare web site

CMS on Wednesday announced that it has updated its Hospital Compare Web site to include information on 30-day mortality rates for the pneumonia and inpatient asthma treatment for children, CQ HealthBeat reports.

In a statement to the press, the agency said it marks the first time that the Web site has offered information on children's health care.

Hospital Compare -- which has been viewed more than 20 million times this year -- now offers data on 26 process of care measures, three outcome of care measures, two children's asthma care measures and 10 patient experience measures, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to CMS, visitors to the site are able to determine if individual hospitals' mortality rates for pneumonia, heart attacks and heart failures are "Better than," "No different," or "Worse than" the national mortality rates for those conditions.

The Web site since last summer also has offered 30-day mortality rates for heart failure and heart attacks. The agency reported that the national 30-day heart attack mortality rate since that time has dropped from 16.3% to 16.1%, while the discrepancy in heart attack mortality rates between individual hospitals also has reduced. The Web site's rates are risk-adjusted based on the condition of patients at the time of admission and offers consumers the interval estimate and the number of eligible cases for each hospital, CMS said. The agency urged consumers not to "shop" for a hospital based on a single process or outcome measure.

In a statement, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said, "Expanding the scope of measures is making Hospital Compare a more valuable tool" (Straus, CQ HealthBeat, 9/3).