IMPROVING HEALTHCARE TRANSPARENCY: THE COLORADO HOSPITAL REPORT CARD
In 2006, the Colorado Legislature established the Colorado Hospital Report Card to enhance transparency around quality of care in hospitals and healthcare facilities in the State of Colorado.
On May 18, 2022, House Bill 22-1401 transferred ownership of the Hospital Report Card and Nurse Sensitive Measures from the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA) to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
This transition seeks to ensure the report card meets the needs of consumers. Once implemented, the updated report card will provide resources for finding and comparing healthcare providers, explain nursing-sensitive quality measures, and offer information on hospital affordability and sustainability.
WHERE WE ARE HEADED:
CDPHE aims to make healthcare information more accessible statewide by creating an interactive website where anyone can compare healthcare measures across Colorado hospitals and facilities. This transparency empowers everyone to make informed decisions about their healthcare and the care of their loved ones. CDPHE is committed to helping you navigate your healthcare journey with confidence.
In the Summer of 2024, CDPHE is launching a robust stakeholder process to gather input on the needs and desires of the hospital report card. Phase 1 of the stakeholder process includes developing an engagement plan, conducting interviews and focus groups to gather diverse perspectives, researching hospital report cards from other states, and presenting findings to Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division (HFEMSD) leadership. A potential phase 2 of the project will include detailed data exploration and visioning for the future hospital report card.
To support the stakeholder process and enhance transparency, it is important to have access to tools that allow you to find and compare healthcare providers. CDPHE has provided some resources below to assist you in your search. Additional tools and resources will be added as the hospital report card is built out.
The links below provide tools to help you find and compare providers.
Medicare.gov (Produced by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services):
Medicare.gov provides a tool to help you find and compare different medical providers, such as doctors, hospitals and nursing homes. This information can be applied l when considering your healthcare options.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Produced by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services):
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide the main datasets used on Medicare.gov. These datasets allow you to compare care quality in Medicare-certified hospitals, Veterans Administration (VA) medical centers, and Department of Defense (DOD) hospitals across the country.
The State Board of Health (BOH) is developing rules for nursing-sensitive quality measures in healthcare facilities, which are not yet finalized. These measures will track patient outcomes influenced by nursing care, such as patient falls, nursing staff hours, time spent with patients, and nursing turnover.
They will align with national standards and be reviewed every three years. Once the rules are adopted , CDPHE will add these measures into the hospital report card. Below are resources outlining the minimum criteria for Nursing-Sensitive Quality Measures and datasets for how they can be applied
Statutory minimums for Nursing-Sensitive Quality Measures are the minimum legal requirements used to assess the quality of nursing care and their impact on patients. They include basics like types of nurses needed (skill mix), how many hours nurses work with a patient every day (the nursing hours per patient per day), how often a patient falls (patient falls prevalence rate), how often those falls lead to injuries (patient falls with injury), and how often staff or contractors experience violence (recorded incidences of violence against staff and contracted staff).
The national quality forum (NQF) oversees safety measures used in public hospitals and facilities, aiming to improve quality of care. The linked report is from June 2015. The report provides context for how to utilize nursing-sensitive quality measures when reviewing data, and providing definitions.
Patient Safety 2015 Final Report (Produced by the National Quality Forum, NQF)
The links below can help you understand the overall cost of healthcare services. Understanding cost can be important for making informed decisions about the affordability and access of care.
2024 Hospital Financial Transparency Report (Produced by the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, HCPF): This annual report from the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) provides an overview of Colorado hospitals. Detailed information about each hospital is in Appendix C: Detailed Dataset by Hospital.
Colorado Hospital Price Report (Produced by the Colorado Division of Insurance): This report provides annual averages for the costs of common medical conditions and procedures, based on patient insurance coverage. It provides a comprehensive insight into potential care expenses, accounting for hospital region, year, coverage type, procedure and medical diagnosis. This tool compares costs based on coverage types.
Colorado Hospital Price Report (Produced by the Colorado Hospital Association): This report provides annual averages for the costs of common medical conditions and procedures, comparing expenses across different hospitals. It tracks changes in care costs over time and the variations in expenses between hospitals. This tool provides a comparison of costs based on the hospital.