Understanding This Report
Why We Have Produced This Report
What You Will Find Here Quality Measures
Clinical Topics
Emphasis on Comparative Data
How Patients Can Use This Information
How Clinicians Can Use This Information
A Few Caveats
Why We Have Produced This Report
This Quality & Safety Report reflects BIDMC’s profound commitment to greater transparency in the health care system. “Transparency” means that everyone — including patients, physicians, our medical staff, and people in our community — should be able to see appropriate information to help them judge for themselves how well we are providing care relative to national and local benchmarks. This comparative data indicates whether our results are better, worse, or just like everyone else’s.
This information helps people make educated decisions when choosing physicians and hospitals. At the same time, gathering and reporting the information helps us improve the quality of care we provide.
Across the country, various health care organizations are taking steps to make the delivery of health care more transparent. By becoming one of the increasing number of hospitals that are publishing their own quality and safety results, BIDMC hopes to help build a safer, higher-quality health system — and encourage other academic medical centers to do the same.
The initial version of BIDMC's Quality & Safety Report presents a limited set of measures for a short list of clinical topics. We plan to expand the site over time, incorporating feedback from consumers, providers in the community, and medical staff. Please click here to tell us what you think of this report.
What You Will Find Here
Quality Measures
In this report, you will find up-to-date quality measures that reflect care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in relation to five criteria adapted from the Institute of Medicine’s 2001 Report Crossing the Quality Chasm.
Evidence-based and Effective
Medical decisions are grounded in the best available evidence of what leads to good outcomes.
Safe
Care is delivered to avoid injuries to patients.
Patient-centered
Care is responsive to the preferences, needs, and values of individual patients.
Timely
Care is prompt and accessible.
Efficient
Providers of care use resources as effectively as possible, avoiding waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.
Equitable
Care does not vary because of gender, ethnicity, location, or socio-economic status.
The measures reported for each clinical topic vary, but BIDMC is committed to presenting measures that cover as many of these criteria as possible.
Clinical Topics
This report presents quality and safety measures that cover various topics.
Hospital-wide Measures
Specific Service Measures
As we move forward into the last quarter of 2008, we will continue to update our performance for the most recent quarter, and add additional measures for specific services. Please check back often.
Priorities for Improvement
The quality and safety improvement priorities are a set of 15 goals that BIDMC is striving to meet to strengthen care that we provide to our patients.
BIDMC plans to expand this report to include more aspects of the clinical care we provide. While we hope to be as comprehensive as possible, our emphasis will be on those aspects of care where:
- consumers and physicians can exercise choice,
- measures of quality are standardized, and
- benchmarks or comparative data of some kind are available.
An Emphasis on Comparative Data
To ensure that our information is as understandable as possible, this report includes comparative information, where it exists, for quality measures. For each clinical topic, there is an appropriate benchmark where possible, (e.g., an average result for academic medical centers; the performance of the top 10th percentile; a goal established by the medical staff; or past BIDMC performance) Where possible, BIDMC compares itself to the performance of those institutions whose scores are among the best (i.e., the top 10 percent of all participating institutions). When this is not possible, BIDMC compares itself to a goal established by the medical staff or BIDMC past performance.
Benchmarks may be drawn from national, regional, local, or BIDMC databases. They are as up-to-date as possible, but in many cases, external benchmarks are not as timely as the data we can report internally. Consequently, the timing for the BIDMC result may not be consistent with the timing of the benchmark data. The sources and timing for each benchmark are provided on the page with each measure.
How Patients Can Use This Information
Information on the quality and safety of care is one of several important considerations for patients and doctors choosing a medical center. Other factors that may come into play include your doctor’s recommendation, the hospital’s reputation, the availability of special services at a particular hospital, how close the hospital is to your home, the cost of care to you, and advice from friends and family.
We encourage you to pay attention to performance data as you assess your options. Many of the measures will help you better understand the practices that lead to the best results for most patients. You can use the information to see how well we meet those standards and, in some cases, how our practices have improved over time.
To make your decision as informed as possible:
- Take a look at how we are doing in the areas of interest to you.
- Seek out comparative information on your alternatives. (Click here for links to sites that offer comparative information on many health care institutions.)
- Discuss the results with your physician. Ask what the two of you can do to ensure that you receive the best possible care.
How Clinicians Can Use This Information
This Quality & Safety Report is intended to be a useful resource for physicians in our community as well as our medical staff. Physicians can use the information on this site to learn more about BIDMC’s clinical programs, to support recommendations to patients, and to initiate discussions with our staff physicians about clinical care at BIDMC.
We also expect that our medical staff will refer to this information to better understand how well we are providing health care services to our patients and to identify opportunities for improvement in our delivery of care.
A Few Caveats
All information on quality, including the data provided here, has certain limitations. First, the public data reflect performance at one point in time, but the reality is that performance changes over time. Internally, BIDMC tracks and addresses performance issues on an ongoing basis. We have tried to compensate for this by providing the most recent data we have, and explaining what we are doing to improve performance in areas where we do not meet the benchmark.
Another concern is that the timing of our data does not always match the timing of our benchmarks. The information we are providing is from the most recent quarter for which we have data, while the timing of the benchmarks depends on the organization responsible for collecting and reporting that data. In most cases, our data are more current than the benchmark, but in a few cases, the benchmark may be more current. The charts indicate the dates for both sets of data.
It is also important to note that BIDMC works on a fiscal year schedule. When the time period for the data presented are described in quarters, it refers to fiscal year quarters. The months included in each quarter are listed below:
- Quarter 1 = October through December
- Quarter 2 = January through March
- Quarter 3 = April through June
- Quarter 4 = July through September
Finally, we recognize that the information in this report does not cover every condition and procedure of interest to patients. BIDMC is committed to adding appropriate information over the coming months.
Useful Resources for Patients
Guide to Health Care Quality: How to Know It When You See It
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/guidetoq/
Having Surgery? What You Need to Know
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/surgery/surgery.htm
Quick Tips—When Talking with Your Doctor
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/quicktips/doctalk.htm
