In furtherance of its efforts to improve quality through transparency, CMS announced updates to its Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare websites on July 19, 2012.  The agency has added two new quality measures to the “use of medical imaging” tab on the Hospital Compare website.  The two measures indicate the percentage of outpatients in hospitals who received both brain and sinus CT scans at the same time, thereby exposing patients to high levels of radiation, and outpatients who received cardiac stress tests before undergoing outpatient surgeries that are considered low-risk.   CMS has also updated data on the website with respect to previously available quality measures.  On the Nursing Home Compare website, CMS has updated quality measures, posted nursing home ownership information, and posted a copy of each nursing home’s most recent health inspection report.  

The Hospital Compare website provides data to the public on over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals, and the Nursing Home Compare website makes data available on all Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes that provide skilled care in the country.  The Hospital Compare website may be accessed by clicking here, and the Nursing Home Compare website may be accessed by clicking here. 

Reporter, Kate Stern, Atlanta, +1 404 572 4661, kstern@kslaw.com.