UCLA Study Finds Limitations in Publicly Reported Quality-of-Care Indicators for Heart Failure Patients

UCLA News

Academic researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality of care for hospitalized heart failure patients may not be the best benchmarks, since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.

Published in the Jan. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study found that none of the current measures used by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), which accredits hospitals, and by the federal government through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to assess hospital performance were associated with a lower risk of mortality during the days immediately following hospital discharge, when adverse events are most likely to occur.

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