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Quality indicators using hospital discharge data: state and national applications
M Johantgen1, A Elixhauser, J K Bali
1Clinical Systems and Quality Assurance, HSS, Inc, Bethesda, MD, USA.
The Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement
|April 21, 1998
Summary
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Quality Indicators (HCUP QIs) provide a low-cost method for assessing health care quality using existing hospital data. These indicators help identify areas for quality improvement initiatives.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Health Informatics
- Quality Improvement
Background:
- Increasing demand for healthcare quality information.
- Lack of resources (data, expertise) for quality measurement in many organizations.
- Introduction of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Quality Indicators (HCUP QIs) for inpatient data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present the HCUP Quality Indicators (QIs) as a tool for measuring health care quality.
- To describe the methodology behind the HCUP QIs.
- To highlight their utility for continuous quality improvement.
Main Methods:
- Development of 33 indicators focusing on clinical performance (outcomes, utilization, access).
- Use of population subgroup restrictions and standardization for analysis.
- Creation of software for generating comparative statistics and trend analysis.
Main Results:
- HCUP QIs enable organizations to produce quality statistics using administrative data.
- Results can be used to stimulate quality improvement initiatives at hospital or aggregate levels.
- A method for statistical comparison to national rates was developed.
Conclusions:
- HCUP QIs offer a cost-effective solution for quality assessment using administrative data.
- Widely adopted by various healthcare organizations for quality monitoring.
- Designed as indicators to highlight potential quality concerns for further investigation.