The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that it will now include Department of Veterans Affairs hospital performance data on its consumer website, Hospital Compare.
Additional VA hospital data will be added in December with plans to integrate the information for comparisons between veteran and civilian acute care hospitals.
The VA information will be displayed by table and will include quarterly effective care measures, satisfaction survey results, outcomes measures on mortality and readmission rates for selected conditions, and behavioral health and patient safety measures, CMS said.
The goal is to present quality and safety data to veterans, their families and the public in an easily-understandable format.
"We are strongly committed to transparency and providing Americans seeking health care information they need to help make decisions on the care they seek," said Patrick Conway, MD, CMS acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer.
"CMS has the nation's most trusted reporting system for hospital performance," said Carolyn Clancy, MD, deputy under secretary for Health for Organizational Excellence, Department of Veterans Affairs.
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