Comprehensive Analysis of Hospital General Information and Quality Ratings.

Abstract

Introduction:
Hospitals play a crucial role in delivering quality health care services to communities. Understanding hospitals' general details and performance quality helps patients make informed healthcare decisions. This study analyzes general information and quality ratings of 14436 hospitals using publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Methods:
The dataset included hospital details like name, address, city, state, ZIP code, county, phone number, type, ownership, emergency services, meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR), overall rating, and footnotes on ratings. It also had quality measures ratings for mortality, safety of care, readmissions, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, and efficient use of imaging compared to the national average. Descriptive statistics characterized hospital types, ownership, services offered. Bayesian inference estimated posterior distributions of proportions for categorical variables. Turf analysis identified key influencing variables.

Results:

Most hospitals lacked key details (66.7%). Acute care (23.3%) and critical access hospitals (9.3%) comprised a third of hospitals. Non-profit ownership was common (14.2-14.2%). Majority hospitals offered emergency services (31.2%) and met EHR meaningful use criteria (32.3%). Overall ratings followed a normal distribution, with 12.2% rated high (3 stars). Mortality (18.8%), readmissions (14.7%), and effectiveness (22.4%) matched national averages most. Footnotes explained missing/suppressed data. Bayesian analysis estimated proportions within tight credible intervals. Turf identified ratings criteria as highly influential.

Conclusion:
This comprehensive analysis of hospital general information and quality ratings provided insights into the US hospital landscape. While most hospitals met basic EHR and services criteria, room remained for improved transparency through complete data reporting. Ratings criteria heavily impacted performance measures. Further research evaluating measure definitions and reporting standards could enhance rating fairness and usefulness for consumers.