US puts hospital comparison data on website to help patients

The US Department of Health and Human Services has added important new data on its website to allow people to compare the quality of services at 4700 acute care, critical access, and children’s hospitals. The United States has about 5000 hospitals.

Barry Straube, chief medical officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said in a teleconference with reporters, “Our goal is not to label hospitals as good or bad but to provide insight to the hospitals as well as the general public on what they are achieving in the care they render. Our ultimate goal is to achieve universally safe, effective, and efficient care for all Americans, not …