Hospital Compare

Choosing Your Hospital

Hospital Compare is a consumer-oriented website that provides information on how well hospitals provide recommended care to their patients. It’s set up to make it easier for you to make informed health care decisions and to support efforts to improve quality in U.S. hospitals. On the site, you can find the recommended care that an adult should get if being treated for a heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia or having surgery.

The site was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), along with the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). The Hospital Quality Alliance: Improving Care Through Information was created in December 2002. The HQA is a public-private collaboration established to promote reporting on hospital quality of care. It’s made up of organizations that represent consumers, hospitals, doctors, employers, accrediting organizations and federal agencies.

The performance rates for the Hospital Compare site generally reflect care provided to all U.S. adults with the exception of the 30-Day Risk Adjusted Death and Readmission measures and the Hospital Outpatient Medical Imaging measures that only include data from Medicare beneficiaries. In March 2008, data from the Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS) survey, also known as the CAHPS Hospital Survey, was added to Hospital Compare. HCAHPS provides a standardized instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care.

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