Hospital Quality Measures

The Nevada Hospital Association and its member hospitals are working hard to deliver the highest standards of care to our patients. As our hospitals work to improve quality and safety, we believe sharing these quality measures is important. However, just because a hospital may have a higher score on a particular measure does not necessarily mean that particular hospital is not providing quality patient care. Hospitals vary in the types and medical complexities of the patients they serve. This can make scores higher or lower.

The important part of quality reporting is not comparing quality measures between one hospital and another. What’s most important is for each hospital to use these measures to identify and target areas which may need improvement in the quality of care provided or, most often, the process through which the care is delivered; benchmark their performance and outcomes compared to national rates; and share “best practices” of good care processes.

Why is this report on hospital quality in Nevada important for you?

You have a right to access information about the quality of health care provided in Nevada. This Web site can be used as a tool to help you become a more informed health care consumer and better manage your personal health.

However, measuring quality of care is not an exact science. That’s why you should use these measures as just one piece of your research. You are encouraged to use this information to facilitate discussions with your family and health care providers about your specific needs and treatment options. If you need to see a doctor, or need surgery, you want to know that you will get the very best care. It’s important to have information so you can ask questions.

What information is available?

There are three types of information provided on this website:

• AHRQ Hospital Quality Performance Measures
• Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Performance Measures
• Sentinel Event Data

For more information about these three sources, click here .

Hospitals with less than 100 licensed beds are considered low volume.  Low volume refers to the occasion when there is a small number of cases or a smaller denominator.  Low volume could impact patient confidentiality and also limit the ability to reliably identify quality differences. Low volume is a frequent problem in performance measurement, especially when using measures based on rare occurrences such as Sentinel Events. For example, a single hospital may only have one death in a year. It would be difficult to ensure protection of patient confidentially in this instance.