[kaila]

People in the business world have no idea how a hospital runs.First off, how do you determine quality? If you determined quality by complication rate, then doctors would cherry pick the patients they treat. Would you rather do surgery on an obese diabetic with a heart condition, or do surgery on an athletic 40 year old with no medical problems? People are not widgets. The more preexisting conditions, the greater risk for complications.

[Vermont Lt]

http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Put in your zip code.

If you are not measuring against those standards, your reimbursements are going to go down.

Anyone who understands quality management could walk into a hospital and develop a standards program in about six months.

All of the issues you mention could very easily be put into a matrix that would adjust the morbidity or acuity. Those things are ALL considered in the metrics.

My wife does this stuff for a living. Do you?