Hospital Compare overall star ratings will not be updated in July

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not update the overall hospital quality star ratings on Hospital Compare in July as scheduled due to data issues with three of the measures included in the safety group score, according to a QualityNet notice yesterday. CMS is working to correct data for the central line-associated bloodstream infection measure, Clostridium difficile infection measure and PSI-90 measure. It anticipates updating the affected measures and overall star ratings in October. For the July update, data for the CLABSI measure will be suppressed, data for the C. difficile measure will be suppressed for hospitals with inaccurate data, and the PSI-90 data will not be refreshed. Hospitals should receive their preview reports for the October update about two weeks after the preview period begins on July 14. Questions related to the overall hospital quality star ratings may be submitted to cmsstarratings@lantanagroup.com.