CalHospitalCompare.org

How Are the Hospitals Doing?

CalHospitalCompare.org is a report card of California hospital performance ratings prepared by the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force (CHART). The California hospitals that participate in CalHospitalCompare.org are committed to establishing themselves as high quality, patient-centered hospitals. They have taken the first steps to fulfilling this commitment by measuring themselves, comparing their performance to national benchmarks, and sharing their performance ratings with the public and their peers.

The available data suggest that the CHART hospitals are, on average, doing well. Measured against national performance, CHART hospitals perform above the national average for 20 of 22 measures, including every measure for heart attack and heart failure care.

Given the commitment of time and resources required to produce the data for CalHospitalCompare.org, it is believed that participating hospitals – even those with lower than average scores – are more likely to be focused on improving the quality of care and experience for patients in their facilities.

There are significant differences among hospitals on every measure, so you should always compare the hospitals that you are considering for the specific service you might need. However, there are some general statements to be made about how CHART hospitals are performing overall. First, patients were generally quite positive about CHART hospitals: at the average participating hospital, 80% of patients rated the hospital an 8, 9, or 10 on a scale of 0 to 10. In addition, for the large majority of CHART hospitals, most patients would definitely recommend the hospital to a family member or friend.

Highlights of What Participating Hospitals Are Doing Well

• Heart Attack Care. Heart attack patients received the appropriate diagnostic tests and key elements of heart attack care more than 90% of the time.
• Heart Failure Care. Heart failure patients received the key diagnostic tests and key elements of heart failure care more than 85% of the time.
• Pneumonia Care. Pneumonia patients received most of the key diagnostic tests and key elements of pneumonia care more than 85% of the time.
• Respect for Patients' Preferences. Most patients, in all service types, reported that their care preferences were honored and that staff treated them with courtesy and respect while in the hospital.
• Patient Safety. Based primarily on patient reports of their experiences, most patients seem to be safe. For instance, patients felt that nurses were checking that they were getting the right medications.

Highlights of Opportunities for Improvement

• Timeliness of Care. While patients seem to receive the right care in most cases, they often have to wait. For instance, fewer than half the patients with heart attack received their clot-busting drugs within 30 minutes (and getting them sooner reduces the risk of dying). Also, while 85% of patients got the best antibiotic for their pneumonia, only 76% of them received it within four hours of arrival. Delaying treatment of the infection can make it worsen before it gets better, lengthen hospital stay, and slow recovery.
• Preventive Care and Discharge Planning. In many hospitals, preventive care performance is much worse than it could be. For instance, pneumonia patients only get the appropriate vaccines – which reduce the risk of developing another pneumonia later – about 60% of the time. Discharge planning also seems to be an area in which improvement could be made.
• Patient Education. According to patient surveys, this aspect of care – doctors and nurses explaining the plan of care – needed the most improvement.