Relationship Between Medicare's Hospital Compare Performance Measures and Mortality Rates.

The article focuses on the results of research which compared hospital care at 3,657 acute care hospitals which were included in Hospital Care, the website of the United States Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The research looked at the number of cases of myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia which were treated at the hospitals and compared the mortality rates which were seen in the cases. A discussion of concerns about the quality of medical care in the U.S. which were seen by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and led to the creation of Hospital Compare and the research, is presented.