Hospital Performance Measures May Not Make Much Difference When It Comes to Mortality

Health poilicy Gurus have been pushing hospital mortality rate comparisons as a form of quality control. Now Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hospitals with high and low performance on Medicare quality measures had little difference in the rate of death for three common conditions at the hospitals, indicating that the performance measures may not accurately reflect patient outcomes. Findings are reported in the December 13th issue of JAMA. this compllex issue is worth reviewing.