Hospital Compare has information about the quality of care for over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals across the country. Hospital Compare can be used to find hospitals and compare the quality of their care. The information on Hospital Compare can help patients make decisions about where to get their healthcare, and encourages hospitals to improve their quality of care.

Hospital Compare was created though the efforts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS, link: cms.gov), in collaboration with organizations representing consumers, hospitals, doctors, employers, accrediting organizations, and other Federal agencies.

Hospital Compare is part of the CMS Hospital Quality Initiative (pdf description can be found here). The Hospital Quality Initiative uses a variety of tools to help stimulate and support improvement in the quality of care delivered by hospitals. The intent is to help improve hospitals’ quality of care by distributing objective, easy to understand data on hospital performance, and quality information from consumer perspectives.

Link:http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/

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