Hospital quality: Does past performance predict future performance?

摘要

More than 10 years after the Institute of Medicine told Americans that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in this country, the federal government, third-party payers, and patients are no longer hoping that hospitals and physicians will build a safer health system-they are de manding it. And, they want safer and better care at a price that will not put a stranglehold on our nation's economic development and stability. To achieve this, the federal government is incentivizing high-quality care by replacing the current volume-based quality-blind payment system with value-based purchasing, which ties payment to quality and patient outcomes.