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For Further Information Contact:
Desiree M. Voinche
Manager, Communications and Outreach
voinched@dfmc.org
410-872-9624

Delmarva Foundation Encourages Use of
Enhanced Hospital Performance Evaluation Guide

Baltimore, MD, July 7, 2006 - Delmarva Foundation, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, encourages Maryland residents to use the Maryland Health Care Commission’s (MHCC) newly-launched Hospital Performance Evaluation Guide. MHCC contracted with the Delmarva Foundation to give the web-based Hospital Guide a brand new look, to make it more consumer-friendly, and to provide new information about the quality of care in Maryland hospitals.  The Hospital Guide includes updated and new information about how hospitals in Maryland provide care for their patients including new information on hospital pricing for the 15 most common diagnoses statewide.  The Guide provides Marylanders with comprehensive and objective health care information to assist them in making choices about their own care.

 The MHCC also contracted with Delmarva Foundation to conduct a special public outreach campaign to inform the public about the Guide and to encourage its use. More than 300,000 brochures highlighting the Hospital Guide have been distributed to hospitals, libraries, and doctors offices. Of special interest to consumers is information on the first generation of process improvement measures for activities associated with prevention of infections following hip, knee, and colon surgery. The Guide also updates and provides trend information on quality measures for the care of patients with heart attacks, heart failure, and pneumonia.

“This is only the beginning of a series of revisions that will be made to enhance the robustness and utility of the Hospital Guide and other comparative report cards issued by the Commission,” said Maryland Health Care Commission Executive Director Dr. Rex Cowdry.

In addition to updated quality data, the Guide also includes other new features such as:

• Links to potential doctors and health insurance providers
• A tutorial to help patients understand how to use the Guide to compare hospitals
• A search box to assist consumers with located information on a certain topic or condition within the site
• A site map showing all topics covered within the site to provide ease of access to all information

“With input from a steering committee comprised of consumers, hospital representatives, data experts coupled with feedback from consumer focus groups and on-going expertise provided by Delmarva Foundation staff, The Hospital Guide not only provides consumers with a resource for evaluating area hospitals, but also allows hospitals to evaluate how they compare to their peers,” said Maulik Joshi, DrPH, President and CEO, Delmarva Foundation. “The Guide is a valuable tool for helping consumers enter into informed conversations with their healthcare providers. The goal for the Hospital Guide is to improve health throughout the state, and that is something that providers and consumers will accomplish together. ”

The first Hospital Guide, released in January 2002, included descriptive information about each hospital together with each hospital's volume, risk-adjusted length of stay and readmission rate for specific medical conditions. It was later expanded to include obstetrics information and individual hospital quality ratings on two conditions—pneumonia and heart failure. The addition of heart attack measures and trend information offer consumers more data on which to make informed decisions about their health care. Consumers can also access data about obstetric services in the state.

Other performance evaluation reports released by the MHCC are also available on the Internet at http://mhcc.maryland.gov/.  These evaluation reports include guides for selecting nursing homes, ambulatory surgery centers, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and point of service (POS) plans.  Those who do not have access to the Internet can contact the Commission at 410-764-3460 or toll free at 1-877-245-1762 or TDD at 1-800-735-2258 to request information.

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About Delmarva Foundation
Delmarva Foundation, 2005 winner of the Maryland U.S. Senate Productivity Award, is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in over 30 states. As the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Maryland and the District of Columbia, we work with the federal government, state agencies, private organizations, doctors, nurses, consumers, managed care organizations, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and academic institutions. Our quality improvement efforts include frontline interventions, training, informed choices for consumers, performance review, data analysis, and quality assurance. Our corporate headquarters are located in Easton, Maryland with other offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, DC; Tampa, Florida; and Tallahassee, Florida. We are constantly seeking fresh approaches and new partnerships to accelerate quality improvement. For more information on Delmarva, visit our website at www.delmarvafoundation.org.