HHS report: Hospitals fall short in meeting error reporting requirements

The government report says the failure to report medical errors hampers providers' ability to identify and fix preventable problems. Meanwhile, new Medicare data shows hospitals are making little progress in reducing preventable readmissions.

USA Today: HHS: Hospitals Ignoring Requirements To Report Errors
Hospitals are ignoring state regulations that require them to report cases in which medical care harmed a patient, making it almost impossible for health care providers to identify and fix preventable problems, a report to be released today by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general shows (Kennedy, 7/20).

Kaiser Health News: Hospitals' Readmissions Rates Not Budging
The nation's hospitals are making little headway in reducing the frequency at which patients are readmitted despite a campaign by the government and the threat of financial penalties, according to Medicare data released Thursday (Rau, 7/19). 

Also, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has updated its Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites -

Boston Globe: Federal Websites Updated With Data On Hospital Imaging, Use Of Antipsychotics In Nursing Homes
Federal regulators Thursday unveiled long-awaited updates to websites that allow consumers to search more detailed information about thousands of hospitals and nursing homes across the country. The revisions to the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare sites include measures that show potential health risks of imaging services in hospitals, detailed findings from nursing home inspections, and specifics about each nursing home's use of antipsychotic medications (Lazar, 7/19).

CQ Healthbeat: Medicare Updates Hospital, Nursing Home Information Sites
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have rolled out two redesigned websites officials said will make it easier for people to find the information they need to decide which hospital or nursing home they should go to…  One site is dedicated to information about hospitals, the other focuses on nursing home information. According to CMS, both sites contain important data on how well these facilities perform on quality measures -; such as the frequency of infections that develop in the hospital, how often patients have to be readmitted to the hospital, and the percentage of nursing residents who report having moderate to severe pain while staying in the nursing homes (Staff, 7/19).

Modern Healthcare: CMS Updates Hospital Compare, Nursing Home Compare Websites
The CMS announced it has updated its Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare consumer websites with new quality measures, easier-to-use navigation and mobile-ready capabilities. Hospital Compare, which the CMS says has drawn more than 1.2 million visitors so far this year, now includes hospital-specific data on two new quality measures related to hospitals' use of imaging: outpatients who received cardiac imaging stress tests before low-risk outpatient surgery, and outpatients with brain CT scans who got a sinus CT scan at the same time (McKinney, 7/19).