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. 2016 Feb;37(2):182-7.
doi: 10.1017/ice.2015.260. Epub 2015 Nov 23.

Lack of Patient Understanding of Hospital-Acquired Infection Data Published on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare Website

Max Masnick  1 , Daniel J Morgan  1 , John D Sorkin  2 , Elizabeth Kim  1 , Jessica P Brown  1 , Penny Rheingans  3 , Anthony D Harris  1
Affiliations

Lack of Patient Understanding of Hospital-Acquired Infection Data Published on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare Website

Max Masnick et al. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Public reporting of hospital quality data is a key element of US healthcare reform. Data for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are especially complex.

Objective: To assess interpretability of HAI data as presented on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare website among patients who might benefit from access to these data.

Methods: We randomly selected inpatients at a large tertiary referral hospital from June to September 2014. Participants performed 4 distinct tasks comparing hypothetical HAI data for 2 hospitals, and the accuracy of their comparisons was assessed. Data were presented using the same tabular formats used by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Demographic characteristics and healthcare experience data were also collected.

Results: Participants (N=110) correctly identified the better of 2 hospitals when given written descriptions of the HAI measure in 72% of the responses (95% CI, 66%-79%). Adding the underlying numerical data (number of infections, patient-time, and standardized infection ratio) to the written descriptions reduced correct responses to 60% (55%-66%). When the written HAI measure description was not informative (identical for both hospitals), 50% answered correctly (42%-58%). When no written HAI measure description was provided and hospitals differed by denominator for infection rate, 38% answered correctly (31%-45%).

Conclusions: Current public HAI data presentation methods may be inadequate. When presented with numeric HAI data, study participants incorrectly compared hospitals on the basis of HAI data in more than 40% of the responses. Research is needed to identify better ways to convey these data to the public.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Format of hospital comparison questions (left pane) and examples of the table formats we assessed for presenting hospital-acquired infection data to the general public (right pane). CAUTIs, catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of the differences between the 4 hospital-acquired infection data interpretation tasks in this study, and descriptions of what is assessed in each task.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean percentage correct on each task for the entire study sample and subgroups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Hospital inpatient quality reporting program. [Accessed January 12, 2015];CMS website. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Inst.... Updated September 13, 2013.
    1. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. [Accessed October 10, 2015];Public Law. 2010 :111–148. http://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Patient%20Protection%20And%20Affordabl.... Updated April 27, 2015.
    1. Medicare Hospital Compare Quality of Care. [Accessed January 28, 2015];Medicare website. http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC’s healthcare-associated infection progress report: questions and answers. [Accessed January 28, 2015];CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/surveillance/QA_stateSummary.html#b6. Updated January 13, 2015.
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