Democratising Healthcare Metrics
Healthcare quality metrics are often locked behind complex clinical jargon. This Data Dictionary provides clear, easy-to-understand definitions of the metrics, scores, and acronyms used across the Hospital Data Center platform.
Overall CMS Star Rating
A composite rating system created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that summarises a hospital's performance across multiple quality measures into a single score from 1 to 5 stars.
Calculated by averaging scores across 5 main quality categories: Mortality, Safety of Care, Readmission, Patient Experience, and Timely/Effective Care. Not all hospitals report all measures, so the rating adjusts based on available parameters.
Clinical Significance: Helps consumers quickly compare overall safety and satisfaction trends between different facilities nationally and within local states.
HCAHPS Patient Experience Survey
Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. It is the first national, standardised, publicly reported survey of patients' perspectives of hospital care.
A 29-question survey distributed to random post-discharge patients. Questions measure dimensions like communication with doctors/nurses, staff responsiveness, pain management, discharge details, and cleanliness.
Clinical Significance: Indicates the patient-centeredness of care and is highly correlated with overall patient safety, clinical communication accuracy, and hospital administrative support quality.
Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI)
Infections that patients contract during their stay in a healthcare facility while receiving treatment for other medical conditions.
Reported as a Standardised Infection Ratio (SIR), which compares the actual number of infections in a facility to the predicted number based on national historical benchmarks.
Clinical Significance: High HAI rates indicate deficiencies in facility sanitation, device insertion protocols, and infection prevention procedures.
Unplanned 30-Day Readmission Rate
The percentage of patients who have an unplanned return to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged after treatment for acute conditions.
Tracks post-discharge patient records over a 30-day window. Factors out planned returns and compares outcomes against national averages.
Clinical Significance: High readmission rates indicate potential issues with the quality of discharge planning, post-discharge medication management, or outpatient recovery coordination.
Timely & Effective Care Measures
A set of guidelines measuring how quickly and consistently a hospital provides recommended treatments for time-critical clinical emergencies.
Measures median wait times in emergency departments, minutes to receive an EKG/MRI, and compliance rates for treating sepsis and stroke cases promptly.
Clinical Significance: Directly relates to survival rates in acute emergencies (e.g. stroke or heart attacks) where clinical delays increase mortality risk.