HEART FAILURE CARE MEASURES

Heart failure is a weakening of the heart's pumping power.  With heart failure, your body doesn't get enough oxygen and nutrients to meet its needs.  These quality measures show some of the standards of care provided, if appropriate, to someone who has heart failure.

 

INTERPRETING THE DATA:

 

Be careful when drawing conclusions from this information. Small numbers of patients may distort reported performance.

What does the fraction mean in all of the reports?
The denominator represents all those patients who were medically eligible to receive the particular treatment. The numerator represents all those patients who actually received the particular treatment for which they were medically qualified.
For example:

Aspirin at Arrival: 80%; 8/10
This means that 10 patients were medically eligible to receive an aspirin on arrival to the hospital and 8 patients actually received it. If a patient is allergic to aspirin, that patient would NOT be part of the denominator. “0/0” means that no patients were medically eligible to receive that particular treatment.
 
Data Report Period: Discharges January through September 2005:
  LVF Assessment ACEI or ARB's
for LVSD		 Smoking Cessation
Counseling		 Discharge
Instructions		 Composite Score
Click "Define" for expanded explanation
of the term above it		 Define Define Define Define Define
National Average 89%
205017/229139		 82%
70904/86302		 81%
31210/38342		 56%
104124/185668		 N/A
 
State Average 89%
790/890		 79%
244/308		 76%
77/101		 66%
423/641		 61%
545/898
Achievable Benchmark
(Represents the average performance achieved by the top hospitals in the U.S.)		 100%
22898/22957		 99%
8842/8959		 100%
4057/4064		 96%
18114/18860		 N/A
 
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital 79%
26/33		 91%
10/11		 57%
4/7		 22%
6/27		 18%
6/33
Central Vermont
Medical Center 		92%
44/48		 86%
12/14		 100%
4/4		 65%
20/31		 73%
35/48
Copley Hospital 83%
10/12		 0/0 0/0 75%
6/8		 67%
8/12
Fletcher Allen
Health Care		 94%
255/272		 75%
113/150		 68%
30/44		 79%
166/211		 64%
176/274
Gifford Medical Center 100%
21/21		 100%
3/3		 0%
0/1		 100%
14/14		 95%
20/21
Grace Cottage Hospital 78%
7/9		 100%
4/4		 0/0 50%
2/4		 56%
5/9
Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center 95%
19/20		 100%
6/6		 0%
0/2		 91%
10/11		 81%
17/21
North Country Hospital 98%
46/47		 40%
2/5		 100%
4/4		 50%
13/26		 64%
30/47
Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital 96%
24/25		 86%
6/7		 50%
1/2		 81%
17/21		 73%
19/26
Northwestern Medical Center 73%
45/62		 80%
12/15		 50%
3/6		 73%
30/41		 56%
35/62
Porter Hospital 85%
23/27		 80%
4/5		 100%
2/2		 61%
14/23		 59%
16/27
Rutland Regional
 Medical Center		 82%
108/132		 78%
35/45		 100%
8/8		 67%
71/106		 55%
75/136
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center 88%
122/138		 88%
29/33		 100%
18/18		 47%
41/87		 58%
80/138
Springfield Hospital 91%
40/44		 80%
8/10		 100%
3/3		 42%
13/31		 52%
23/44
VA Medical Center 98%
44/45		 100%
18/18		 86%
6/7		 74%
31/42		 N/A

Would you like to see a further source of hospital performance data? 
See Vermont information on the "Hospital Compare" website.
"Hospital Compare" was developed in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). "Hospital Compare" shows measures based on data from hospitals' patient records. The data is converted to rates that measure how well hospitals care for their patients.

The table format, measure descriptions and definition of "Achievable Benchmark" were developed by the New Hampshire-based Foundation for Healthy Communities. The Northeast Healthcare Quality Foundation provided the data analysis. The Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration expresses its gratitude to both organizations.