Illinois' online Hospital Report Card database will now include additional, more specific information related to patient safety and quality of care. The
Web site, launched in November 2009, is a tool for consumers to access a range of provider data including nursing staffing levels, hospitals' volume of cases, and costs of services.
New features include data on central line-associated blood stream infections, updated hospital designations and emergency department volume. The site will now also provide risk-adjusted information for mortality and patient safety, coded with red, yellow or green symbols to denote whether the hospital's score is better, worse or on par with state and national averages.
For example, a hospital that scored lower than the state's average for incidences of postoperative respiratory failure would have a red symbol next to that measure, denoting a performance that is “statistically significantly worse than state average.”
Additionally, the site includes revised data for all indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Surgical Care Improvement Project measures, patient-satisfaction scores and services provided at each hospital.
All new information on the site is from July 2008 through June 2009, and new data will be routinely added, the state's public health department said in an April 12 news release.
