Do healthcare consumers understand CMS quality data?

CMS provides data on healthcare-associated infections in an effort to help patients choose a hospital, but the presentation of this data may not be as helpful as intended.

A study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology found patients have difficulty deciphering HAI data. The study included 110 randomly selected patients at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. The patients were asked to compare two hypothetical hospitals based on catheter-associated urinary tract infection frequency. The HAI data was presented in the same format used on the CMS Hospital Compare website open to the general public.

When given written descriptions, 28 percent of participants were unable to select the better hospital. When given written descriptions and numeric data, 40 percent of the patients were unable to identify the better hospital.

"HAI data are made accessible to the public to help improve hospital quality and increase transparency among healthcare systems. We need more effective ways to communicate this information," said lead author Max Masnick, PhD.

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