Quality Quarterly

Hospital Quality Improvement Platform Quarterly Recruitment and Functionality Updates

Use of HQI’s Hospital Quality Improvement Platform — a quality analytics system that consolidates disparate data sources into a single, statewide platform — continues to increase as more hospitals complete their contract reviews. The platform is free to all CHA members.  

The secure, web-based platform provides risk-adjusted quality measures for conditions most affected by hospital quality initiatives. Through the platform, hospitals gain access to clinically rich, timely reports to help easily identify opportunities for improvement and areas for focus. The free platform is web-based, does not connect to your electronic health records system, and uses data hospitals already report to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) and the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).  

Since launching in October 2019: 

  • 340 of 470 hospitals have seen a demo of the platform  
  • 128 hospitals have executed agreements  
  • 157 hospitals have participation agreements under legal review  

WHAT’S IN THE UPDATE  

Reports in the queue 

  • Severe Maternal Morbidity: Report showing the 21 CDC SMM Indicators  
  • Pediatric Quality Indicators: Reports based on the new AHRQ PDI Indicators and composites
  • Mental Health and Substance Abuse: Reports based on the SAMHSA Mental Health Substance Use Diagnosis Codes
  • Community Health Needs Assessment: Comprehensive report covering community health needs based on the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency Public Health Services Data Guide and Codebook  
  • Substance Use Disorders, Dependencies, and Abuse: Detailed reports showing abuses and dependencies of many potentially harmful drugs with a special focus on opioids based on the California Department of Health Care Services’ Substance Use Analysis Codes  
  • All-Cause Mortality: Report re-creating Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 30-day all-cause acute myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and hospital-wide mortality rates  
  • Pressure Ulcers: Report showing the severity and location of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) PSI 03 Pressure Ulcers
  • Communicable Diseases: Report of incidence and mortality rates for communicable diseases, including COVID-19, sexually transmitted diseases, and other viral or bacterial infections
  • Challenging/Difficult Patients: A report showing the prevalence of tough-to-manage patients because of AMA, wandering, refusal of care, non-compliance, and restraint use  

New functionalities 

  • Added filter for three-, seven-, 14-, and 30-day readmissions available on all inpatient reports.  

Reporting updates 

  • NHSN healthcare-associated infection (HAI) reports have been refreshed with the latest data (updated Dec. 2, 2021).  

ABOUT THE PLATFORM 

Features include: 

  • Access to hospital performance data from various sources, integrated into a centralized platform.    
  • Tools to understand your hospital’s quality performance and compare standardized measures to statewide benchmarks and peers.    
  • The ability to explore same-year quality performance for your hospital, rather than waiting eight to 20 months for statewide files to be released.    
  • An intuitive interface that provides a window into inpatient and emergency quality indicators.      
  • Secure data within HIPAA-qualified encrypted data systems.    

Quality measures include: 

  • Inpatient episode quality and efficiency   
  • Readmissions (3, 7, 14, 30 day)   
  • HAIs  
  • Case mix demographics, comorbidities, index   
  •  CMS hospital-acquired conditions (DRA HAC and HACRP)   
  • Cancer surgery volumes   
  • Emergency department (ED) discharge analytics (comorbidities, volume, demographics, revisits)   
  • Adverse drug events (anticoagulants, glycemic control, and opioids)   
  • HACs   
  • AHRQ patient safety indicators   
  • AHRQ inpatient quality indicators    
  • Sepsis incidence and mortality   
  • Maternity measures   
  • Mortality/serious complications/reoperations/length of stay/discharge disposition   
  • Recent (SIERA) discharge volume by source (inpatient, ED, ambulatory surgery)  
  • Social determinants of health  
  • Chronic physical and behavioral conditions  

There are 15 options for benchmarking your hospital’s performance:  

  • All CHA member hospitals   
  • Other critical access hospitals   
  • Other rural hospitals  
  • Other children’s hospitals   
  • Other teaching hospitals  
  • Your hospital’s past performance   
  • Other CHA member hospitals:   
  • In the same health system   
  • In the same general region  
  • In the same health service area  
  • In the same metropolitan statistical area  
  • With similar bed size  
  • With the same type of control (e.g., non-profit)  
  • With the same license type  
  • With similar Medicare payer mix  
  • With similar Medi-Cal payer mix  
  • With the same adult/children’s trauma level designation   
  • With similar inpatient discharge volume  
  • With same ED service level (e.g., basic, standby)  
  • With similar outpatient visit volume  

Hospitals can participate by taking three easy steps:   

For more information about the Hospital Quality Improvement Platform or to schedule a 30-minute demo, visit the HQI website or email HQIAnalytics@HQInstitute.org