Catholic Health Services : Quality & Outcomes

There are many reasons to measure performance in health care. First and foremost is the obligation to our patients to provide safe and effective care. Transparency and quality data reporting are the vehicles that share how we are doing on this important topic. At CHS we are committed to these principles and this section illustrates our organization’s performance in key quality metrics. More importantly it demonstrates our willingness to share the data with the communities we serve.

As a vehicle to spur performance improvement in health care, public reporting has been a success nationwide. Since 2003 when Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began making quality data publicly available, processes of care that make up the foundation of the treatment of hospitalized patients with heart failure, acute heart attacks, pneumonia and prevention of surgical infections have been significantly improved. Where available we have included comparative benchmarks so that you can see how our performance stands up against state and national data.

One thing is certain in this endeavor - the nature and scope of the conditions being measured will evolve. Conversations about the use of one set of measures over another or the relative importance of what we measure continue to be addressed by professional medical societies, the Joint Commission, National Committee on Quality Assurance and many others. CHS is committed to being an active participant in the latest initiatives aimed at improving quality, access and safety.