Frequently Asked Questions
What is HealthGrades?
Health Grades, Inc. (NASDAQ:HGRD) is a healthcare quality ratings, information and advisory services company. Our mission is to
improve the quality of healthcare nationwide. With its proprietary, objective provider ratings and expert advisory services, HealthGrades
is creating the standard for healthcare quality. HealthGrades provides its clients with targeted solutions that enable them to measure,
assess, enhance and market healthcare quality.
What services does HealthGrades offer consumers?
HealthGrades' Web site,
www.healthgrades.com
, gives consumers vital tools for evaluating and selecting healthcare providers based on
quality. HealthGrades provides objective provider ratings, profiles and directory information, tips, recommendations and checklists for
selecting the best providers and online maps for each location. The site can tell you, for example, which hospital in your state has the
best survival rate for coronary bypass surgery, or which nursing homes in your town provide superior care. The site also lets users select
physicians among 110 specialties.
What healthcare providers does HealthGrades rate or profile?
·
5,000 hospitals according to specialty (cardiac surgery, cardiology, orthopedic surgery, neurosciences, pulmonary/respiratory,
vascular surgery, obstetrics and women's health)
·
620,000 physicians in 110 specialties
·
15,000 nursing homes
·
6,000 home health agencies
How does HealthGrades rate healthcare providers?
HealthGrades assembled a team of healthcare information and analysis experts, including Susan DesHarnais, Ph.D., to develop the
company's objective ratings. Dr. DesHarnais has spent more than 16 years developing methods and publishing articles on risk-adjusting
healthcare outcomes data.
HealthGrades compiles outcomes data from more than 70 independent public and private sources and translates it into easily
understandable, objective report card ratings on providers. The company utilizes advanced information management and statistical
techniques to process and risk-adjust a large volume of patient level data. HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data in order to make valid and
accurate comparisons between providers, taking into account that the demographic characteristics of patients and the severity of
patients' illnesses may vary at different locations. This levels the playing field, for example, between hospitals that treat sicker patients
vs. those that treat healthier patients.
HealthGrades' hospital ratings use data from the most current three-year data set available from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) and 18 individual states in order to provide meaningful ratings. HealthGrades' nursing home and home health ratings
use data provided by CMS in the Online Survey Certification and Reporting database and are based on current, past and repeating
deficiencies found during on-site inspection surveys.
How does HealthGrades help hospitals?
HealthGrades offers proven business solutions including independent, third-party ratings and advisory services to help providers
compete on the basis of quality and assess and improve their quality of care. These solutions include:
·
Strategic Quality Initiative (SQI) helps the nation's top-performing hospitals build and maintain a reputation for excellence
and compete on the basis of quality. SQI has proven successful in increasing patient volume and market share and bolstering
staff recruitment and retention for the company's more than 170 hospital partners.
·
Quality Assessment and Improvement Initiative (QAI) works with clinical staff and physicians to identify areas of quality
improvement for hospitals and offers them a suite of tools and services to enhance their quality of care.
