Working with the Florida Hospital Association, Broward Health and other hospitals in Florida have long supported efforts to make useful information available to consumers.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has been working with the Comprehensive Health Information Services Advisory Council to create a consumer-friendly website with performance measures on Florida’s hospitals, community health centers, outpatient centers and surgery centers. All of Florida’s hospitals are participating in this voluntary effort.

The AHCA consumer website www.FloridaHealthFinder.gov is just one of many sites and publications that provide information on hospital quality. However, no data or website can substitute for direct communications between patients and their physicians.

Other organizations providing quality information to the public including the following:

CMS's Hospital Compare
http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/
Joint Commission's Quality Check
http://www.jcaho.org/quality+check/index.htm

What can a patient do with the data?

• Patients can use this information to begin a conversation with their physician about the care they expect to receive.
• When reviewing the performance data, it is important to remember death or complications may occur even when all standards of care are followed. Mortality rates may be higher in areas with large populations of elderly or AIDS/HIV patients.

Tips for Patients to Lower Risk of Infection and Complications:

• Ask your physician about whether or not you should be vaccinated for diseases that cause respiratory infections, including influenza and pneumonia.
• If diabetic, you should be sure to discuss blood sugar control with your physician – high blood sugar increases risk of infection.
• If you are overweight, losing weight will reduce the risk of infection following surgery.
• Smokers should consider a smoking cessation program. This will reduce chances of developing lung infections and will improve the ability to heal after surgery.
• Be sure your healthcare providers are aware of any medications you take, including prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, home remedies, and dietary supplements.
• Read A Patient’s Guide to a Hospital Stay (AHCA website) - This brochure provides information that can help you prepare for a stay in the hospital.
• If you are a patient in a hospital:
  - Wash your hands, especially after using the bathroom and before eating.
  - Expect your healthcare provider to perform hand hygiene – wash with soap and
  water or disinfect hands using an alcohol sanitizer product. Feel free to ASK
  your physician, nurse or other provider if they have clean hands.
  - Protect catheter and wound dressings from becoming soiled. Tell the nurse
  promptly if a dressing becomes soiled or wet.
  - Ask family and friends not to visit if they are sick.

What are hospitals doing to improve patient safety and outcomes?

• Hospitals work tirelessly to improve the safety and quality of the care provided to their patients through a variety of programs.
• All Florida hospitals participate in the federal government’s voluntary effort to collect and publish hospital quality data.
• Broward Health and other hospitals participate voluntarily in various quality initiatives. These include, but are not limited to:
  
  Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals – implementation of related accreditation standards. www.jcaho.org

Joint Commission Sentinel Event Reporting – implementation of related accreditation standards. www.jcaho.org

Joint Commission Speak Up™ programs (wrong site surgery, organ donation, infection control and medication mistakes) – to encourage patients to become an informed and active member of the health care team. http://www.jcipatientsafety.org/

Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS) – an initiative to uniformly measure and publicly report patients’ perspectives on their inpatient care. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/

Medication Errors Reporting Program (operated by the United States Pharmacopeia in cooperation with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices) – confidential national voluntary reporting program that provides expert analysis of the system causes of medication errors and disseminates recommendations for prevention. http://www.usp.org/patientSafety/

Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration Project – testing the efficacy of economic incentives to improve the quality of patient care. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/