Serving 1.3 million patients, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (NYCHHC), a member of IHI’s IMPACT network, is America’s largest public health system. It is also among its most transparent. Data ranging from surgical infection rates to mortality rates is available on its website for anyone to view.
“Sharing our performance data is not about showing how good or bad we are, but to make ourselves more accountable and promote improvement,” says NYCHHC President Alan D. Aviles.
While NYCHHC is required to submit some performance data to state or federal agencies, that data has not typically been easily available to the public. Public reporting of other data, particularly its mortality rate, is not required.
The online data is a combination of information already available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website, data gathered for IHI’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, and nursing home statistics for measures such as pressure ulcers, falls and pain control.
“At first we were kind of nervous,” says Ramanathan Raju, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. “Even though the data compares favorably with national and state averages, there were internal sensitivities. “We are an 11-hospital system and one has to be number one, and one has to be number 11. So we worked internally to help people understand what we are doing and why. It’s been quite an educational experience for us, and it focuses people’s attention on what needs to improve. If you want to move an organization of 40,000 people in one direction, public accountability is a powerful tool.”
06/01/2008
