CMS Blog: CMS Announces Updates to Dialysis Facility Compare: Patient Experience Ratings Now Available

CMS BLOG
http://blog.cms.gov/2016/10/28/cms-announces-updates-to-dialysis-facility-compare-patient-experience-ratings-now-available

October 28, 2016
By: Kate Goodrich, M.D., Director, Center for Clinical Standards and Quality

CMS Announces Updates to Dialysis Facility Compare: Patient Experience Ratings Now Available 

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes to the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) website on Medicare.gov, which provides information about thousands of Medicare-certified dialysis facilities across the country, including how well those centers deliver care to patients.

These changes are in direct response to the important feedback CMS has received from dialysis patients and their caregivers about what is most important to them in selecting their dialysis facility. CMS remains committed to seeking and incorporating input from all stakeholders, but especially patients, on an ongoing basis so that we can continually improve our Compare sites and make health care quality information more transparent and understandable for patients and their caregivers.

Since the initial release of the Dialysis Facility Compare website, patients have emphasized in their feedback to CMS that understanding how others like them view a dialysis center— in particular the cleanliness of the facility and how well the staff cares for them— is valuable information when choosing a facility. As a result, visitors to the updated Dialysis Facility Compare website will now be able to see how patients rate their experiences with dialysis facilities.

CMS collects patient experience data though the In-Center Hemodialysis Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ICH-CAHPS) Survey, which measures patients' perspectives on the care they received at dialysis facilities. A total of six ratings on patients’ experiences with care will be reported, including three that cover specific aspects of patient experience and three overall patient ratings of the kidney doctors, the facility staff and the dialysis facilities. For each dialysis center on Dialysis Facility Compare, the site will include this patient experience information, the quality star rating, and detailed clinical quality information.

CMS is also adding two quality measures to Dialysis Facility Compare:

• The standardized infection ratio (SIR) is a ratio of the number of bloodstream infections that are observed at a facility versus the number of bloodstream infections that are predicted for that facility, based on national baseline data.
• The pediatric peritoneal dialysis Kt/V measure equals the percent of eligible pediatric peritoneal dialysis patients at the facility who had enough waste removed from their blood during dialysis.

Other major changes to the site include modifications to the methodology for calculating dialysis facility star ratings based on recommendations from a 2015 Technical Expert Panel. The updated methodology for calculating star ratings:

• Establishes a baseline to show improvement by taking into account year-to-year changes in facility performance on the quality measures compared to performance standards set in a baseline year. Star ratings will reflect if a facility improves (or declines) in performance over time. 
• Limits the impact of a few very low scores by applying a statistical method called truncated z-scores to percentage measures. This ensures that star ratings are not determined by extreme outlier performance on a single measure. 
• Ensures accuracy of ratings by keeping the continuity of the measures.

A final change to the DFC website relates to ratio measures:

• The Standardized Mortality Ratio, Standardized hospitalization Ratio, Standardized Transfusion Ratio, and Standardized Readmission Ratio will now be reflected as rates to display them more clearly.

These changes reflect CMS’ ongoing commitment to making sure that Dialysis Facility Compare meets the needs of individuals with kidney disease and their caregivers. This Compare website and today’s updates are part of the agency’s larger effort to make health care quality information more transparent and understandable for consumers.  As part of that effort, CMS also has other Compare websites to help in selecting providers across the continuum of care, including Home Health Compare, Hospital Compare, Nursing Home Compare, and Physician Compare.

For more information, see the fact sheet here: https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2016-Fact-sheets-items/2016-10-28.html