Regulatory Committee Insight: QualityNet mortality basics

Mortality has been a publicly reported quality metric on Medicare.gov for nearly a decade. This metric allows for the comparison of death rates across various conditions, including hospital-wide and specific categories such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). It reflects quality outcomes not only for patients currently in the hospital, but for those discharged within the last 30 days.

The ACDIS Regulatory Committee thanks Crystal East, RN, BSN, CPHQ, CCDS, for serving as lead author for this work.