Displaying Quality Measures

Except for the Five-Star Overall Hospital Quality Rating and the Patient Experience Survey Ratings, the quality data on CompareMaine are displayed using a three-bar icon to visualize when performance is below, at, or above the state average. More bars mean better performance, with three bars indicating the best, and fewer bars mean worse performance.

The performance of hospitals on several of the quality measures is compared to the state confidence intervals and state and national averages, when available. The performance rating for a hospital may differ depending on which comparison is being made.

If the hospital’s confidence interval (CI) overlaps with the state confidence interval, the hospital is considered “average,” and receives a rating of two bars on CompareMaine. If the hospital’s CI is below the state CI, the hospital is performing “above average” and receives a rating of three bars. If the hospital’s CI is above the state CI, the hospital is performing “below average” and receives a rating of one bar.

For the Five-Star Overall Hospital Quality Rating, CompareMaine reports on a five-star scale, with the stars drawn from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Compare website:

worse better

For Patient Experience Survey Results, CompareMaine reports on a five-bar scale, with each bar representative of a star in the Five-Star Overall Hospital Quality Rating:

Calculating Quality Measures

Five-Star Overall Hospital Quality Rating

The Five-Star Overall Hospital Quality Rating is a summary of multiple measures of quality into a single star rating for each hospital, based on data submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and compared to hospitals nationally.

The rating is based on a weighted composite of Maine hospitals overall performance on 46 quality measures within the following categories:

• Mortality – 7 measures
• Safety of Care – 8 measures
• Readmission – 11 measures
• Patient Experience – 8 measures
• Timely and Efficient Care – 11 measures

Patient Experience Survey Ratings

CompareMaine reports patient experience ratings based on the HCAHPS Patient Survey, with the ratings on a five-bar scale, drawn from CMS’s Medicare Care Compare website, with one bar for each star. CMS calculates the ratings by combining the average scores for 10 individual HCAHPS measures. CMS does not calculate a national or state average; consequently, MHDO chose not to report these comparisons.

Healthcare-Associated Infections and Serious Complications

For Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) and serious complications, the ratings for both the state and national averages are calculated by CMS. CMS compares each hospital’s performance to the national average, using confidence intervals. For serious complications, the Maine Health Data Organization (MHDO) calculates the statewide average and confidence intervals for each hospital since CMS does not provide the statewide information.

Falls with Injury and Pressure Ulcers

The rates for falls with injury and pressure ulcers are based on hospital-reported data submitted to MHDO. MHDO calculates the confidence intervals for the state and each hospital and compares the hospital rates to the statewide confidence interval.

Unplanned Hospital-Wide Readmissions

The rates for unplanned hospital-wide readmissions are based on hospital rates compared to the CMS national average.

For more information, download the quality data reported on CompareMaine.