CMS Announces New Addition of Patient Ratings To Dialysis Comparison Website

A new addition to the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) website on Medicare.gov has been recently declared by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), which shares information on Medicare-certified dialysis facilities across the United States in response to sufferer and caregiver feedback on what information is significant to them when selecting a dialysis facility. The updated comparison information or data is a depiction of the increasing significance of consumerism in healthcare.

In a CMS blog post, M.D., Director, Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, Kate Goodrich wrote, “Since the early release of the Dialysis Facility Compare website, patients have compelled in their feedback to CMS that understanding how others like them view a dialysis center — in specific the cleanliness of the facility and how well the staff look after them — is worthy information when selecting a facility. As an outcome, visitors to the updated Dialysis Facility Compare website will now be capable to view how sufferers rate their experiences with dialysis facilities.”

The Dialysis Facility Compare website will now involve data from CMS’ In-Center Hemodialysis Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ICH-CAHPS) Survey on how patients rate their experiences at facilities, involving treatment from staff and facility cleanliness.

DFC is the official CMS resource relating to the quality of dialysis facilities, and it includes information on thousands of Medicare-certified dialysis centers nationwide. The star ratings have been added by CMS to its Compare websites previous year in case to make better the usefulness of quality information for customers. The star ratings were originally involved on the DFC website on the day of January 22, 2015, and were previously updated in the month of October 2015. Presently, there are star ratings on Dialysis Facility Compare, Nursing Home Compare, Physician Compare, Home Health Compare, and Hospital Compare. 

2 latest quality measures are also being added to Dialysis Facility Compare, involving National Healthcare Safety Network Standardized Bloodstream Infection Ratio and The Pediatric Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) Kt/V. More information regarding to the important risk factors will be provided by this.
​
Furthermore, the star rating system is also getting a makeover, involving modifications to the measure scoring methodology and the development of fa baseline year to develop scoring functions, domains, and star rating cut-offs to be used in future years.