CMS Declares Modifications to Dialysis Facility Compare

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) declared updates to the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) website today on Medicare.gov, which offers data about thousands of Medicare-certified dialysis facilities across the country, involving how well those centers deliver care to sufferers.

These significant updates are in straight response to the important feedback CMS has got from dialysis sufferers and their caregivers over what is most significant to them in opting out their dialysis service and facility.

Patients have compelled in their feedback to CMS after the initial release of the Dialysis Facility Compare Website that understanding how others like them view a dialysis center— in specific the cleanliness and hygiene of the facility and how well the staff look after them— is precious data when selecting a facility. Visitors to the modified Dialysis Facility Compare website will now can see how sufferers rate their experiences with dialysis facilities.

Patient experience data is collected by CMS through the In-Center Hemodialysis Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ICH-CAHPS) Survey, which measures sufferers’ perspectives on the care they got at dialysis facilities. Six ratings in total on patients’ experiences with care will be reported, involving 3 that cover particular aspects of patient experience and 3 overall patient ratings of the facility staff, Kidney Doctors and the dialysis facilities. The site will involve this patient experience information, the quality star rating, and detailed clinical quality information for each dialysis center on Dialysis Facility Compare.
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2 quality measures to Dialysis Facility Compare are also added by CMS:
•    The pediatric peritoneal dialysis Kt/V measure and calculate equals the percent of eligible pediatric peritoneal dialysis sufferers at the facility who had sufficient waste removed from their blood during the time of dialysis.

•    The SIR (standardized infection ratio) is a proposed ratio of the number of bloodstream infections that are analyzed at a facility in contrast to the number of bloodstream infections that are predicted and assumed for that facility, deployed on national baseline data.

Changes and modifications to the methodology for calculating dialysis facility star ratings based on suggestions from a 2015 Technical Expert Panel is the other key change to the site. The modified methodology for calculating star ratings:

•    By applying a statistical method known as truncated z-scores to percentage measures, it restricts affect of a few very low scores. This makes sure that star ratings aren’t evaluated by extreme outlier performance on a single measure. 

•    Develops a baseline to indicate improvement by taking into account year-to-year updates in facility performance on the quality measures in contrast to the performance standards set in a baseline year. If a facility shows improvements (or declines) in performance over time, star rating will reflect.

•    Precision and accuracy of ratings ate ensured by keeping the continuity of the measures.

A last modification to the DFC website is regarded to the ratio measures:
•    The Standardized hospitalization Ratio, Standardized Mortality Ratio, Standardized Transfusion Ratio, and Standardized Readmission Ratio will be depicted now as rates to present them more clearly.
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For further information, please see the fact sheet mentioned below:
https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2016-Fact-sheets-items/2016-10-28.html