About Us
This Web site is the result of a partnership between three independent organizations dedicated to improving health care quality: The California HealthCare Foundation, the University of California at San Francisco Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, and the California Hospitals Assessment and Reporting Taskforce (CHART), a not-for-profit public benefit corporation. This site includes ratings for clinical care, patient safety, and patient experience for the more than 200 hospitals in California that have chosen to participate in this important voluntary project.
About CHART
The California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce (CHART) was established in 2004 to develop a statewide hospital performance reporting system using a multi-stakeholder collaborative process. The stakeholder group includes consumers; purchasers of health insurance, such as businesses and labor organizations; health plans; hospitals; physicians; nurses; health care quality experts from government and academic institutions; and regulators. CHART brings together all these relevant stakeholders in California health care to:
- Select key aspects of hospital performance to measure and report;
- Agree upon a uniform, scientifically valid approach to measurement for all California hospitals;
- Collect and aggregate the data as defined and specified;
- Confirm the validity of the measurements made;
- Provide hospitals and clinicians with valid measures and benchmarking data on which to base quality improvement efforts; and
- Report the performance of individual California hospitals to consumers, purchasers, and health plans.
The project is supported by health care organizations across California:
- Aetna West Region*
- American Nurses Association (California)
- Anthem Blue Cross*
- Blue Shield of California*
- Blue Shield of California Foundation*
- California Health Care Coalition
- California HealthCare Foundation*
- California Hospital Association
- California Medical Association
- California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
- California Pan Ethnic Health Network
- CalPERS
- Catholic Healthcare West
- CIGNA HealthCare of California*
- Community Health Councils
- Health Net*
- Hospital Association of Southern California
- Kaiser Foundation Health Plan*
- Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
- Pacific Business Group on Health
- PacifiCare of California*
- Sacramento Healthcare Decisions
- San Mateo Legal Aid Society
- St. Joseph's Health System
- Sutter Health
- Tenet
* Funding organizations
The project has in-kind and financial support from participating hospitals and most of the larger health plans in California. All key decisions regarding the measures reported are made by the CHART board of directors, which is made up of representatives from the organizations listed above.
Additional information about the CHART project may be found on the California HealthCare Foundation and UCSF sites.
About the California HealthCare Foundation
The California HealthCare Foundation is an independent philanthropy committed to improving the way health care is delivered and financed in California. By promoting innovations in care and broader access to information, our goal is to ensure that all Californians can get the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. For more information, visit CHCF.org.
About the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS)
The primary goals of IHPS are to conduct policy-oriented research and analysis on a wide range of health issues; to apply research findings to health policy issues at the national, state, and local levels; and to provide education and training opportunities in health policy and health services research. For more information, visit the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.
