Adding Cost Measures to Public Reports

The South Central PA Alliance, which has been publicly reporting clinical performance measures for the past two years, recently added cost measures to its public report. Using state hospital discharge data from the Pennsylvania Health Cost Containment Council, the Alliance shares the new cost and efficiency on its public reporting website. The new cost measures include:

• average length of stay,
• overall readmission rates and
• average total charges for patients with diabetes-related conditions, heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and stroke.

For many communities length of stay is a difficult subject to address with employers and consumers but through its website, the alliance successfully redirects the discussion from varying interpretations of the information to the bottom line; longer stays equate to higher costs and lower patient satisfaction.

For more information about cost and efficiency in AF4Q communities click here.