How do the hospitals compare using these measures and how do you explain the differences?

Learning Goal: I’m working on a health & medical question and need guidance to help me learn.

1. Explore Hospital Compare. Apply what we’ve learned to some data hosted at http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 (Links to an external site.). This web site provides information on how well the hospitals in your area care for their adult patients with certain medical conditions. Hospital Compare was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and organizations that represent hospitals, doctors, employers, accrediting organizations, other Federal agencies and the public.

Using the Hospital Compare Tool, choose two hospitals in your town/area and evaluate data on three different medical conditions (select 1-2 quality measures for each medical condition).

How do the hospitals compare using these measures and how do you explain the differences?

Do you think the patient surveys are useful for developing policy and evaluating quality of care?

2. Using Prescriber CheckUp, look up a physician’s prescribing history and see how it compares with physicians of the same specialty.

Read the article: org/article/part-d-prescriber-checkup-mainbar” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>http://www.propublica.org/article/part-d-prescriber-checkup-mainbar (Links to an external site.)

Read the FAQ’s org/article/prescriber-checkup-faq” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>http://www.propublica.org/article/prescriber-checkup-faq (Links to an external site.)

Go to Prescriber Checkup at http://projects.propublica.org/checkup/ (Links to an external site.)

Find the following prescriber and answer the questions:

Alicia Chen M.D., an internal medicine physician located at 1921 E NINE MILE RD, PENSACOLA, FL 32514

1. What is the average cost of the medications she prescribed?

2. How does her prescribing pattern compare to others in the same specialty and state?

a. Less like her peers

b. More like her peers

3. What percent of the patients received narcotics?

4. How does her prescribing pattern compare to others in the same specialty and state?

a. Prescribes more narcotics than the average

b. Prescribes less narcotics than the average

5. What is the top-ranked drug that she prescribes?

6. What is the ranking for all prescribers in this specialty in Florida for her top-ranked drug?

What do you think of this tool?

How useful do you think it is?

Will consumers use it?

Should this information be available to the public?

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I live in Indianapolis, Indiana, US So make sure to pick two hospitals from this area.