South Carolina hospitals want to be accountable for the care they provide to their patients, and they want the citizens of South Carolina to learn more about their own health care. Consumers need access to facts that can help them make informed health care decisions. In addition, the data can be used to improve care within hospitals through benchmarking and sharing of best practices. mySChospital provides information that, as close as possible, reflects the actual care provided.

One hundred percent of the general, acute care hospitals and critical access hospitals in the state are voluntarily participating in this public quality and safety reporting website. This new site is very consumer friendly and include only validated data. This says a great deal about all South Carolina hospitals’ commitment to public accountability, transparency, and of course your primary goal – high quality, safe care for every patient, every time.

At this time, hospitals that are excluded from mySChospital are rehabilitation centers, psychiatric hospitals, drug and alcohol centers, state and federal hospitals and LTACS. Currently mySChospital does not have any measures that apply to these hospitals.

Why don't all hospitals have data in all the measure sets?

Not all hospitals treat all types of problems. Hospitals must decide which measures apply to them, based on the services that they provide. Not all measures in mySChospital are relevant for the patient population of every hospital. For example, some patients may enter a hospital and require additional services so they are transferred to a second hospital. 

Hospitals provide data to the mySChospital program as they begin to collect the information. When a new measure or measure set is added, some hospitals will be ready to report, while others will need time to get ready to report.

Where do the demographic information come from?

The demographic information comes from The Joint Annual Report the hospitals fill out themselves.

What happens if a hospital has low volume (small number of patients) for a measure?

See "Low Reporting Volume."

No data collected at this time or no cases met criteria?

Not all hospitals collect and report data for all of the measures reported in mySChospital. There are several reasons for this:

• Hospitals treat different types of patients based on the needs of their communities. A hospital may not provide direct care to the type of patients that are reported on by one or more of the measures in mySChospital. If a patient requires care that is not provided by the hospital where they are currently receiving care, that hospital will arrange a transfer to an appropriate facility.
• Hospitals provide many types of care. Each hospital has a quality improvement plan which determines which types of patients they will monitor and focus their improvement efforts on. If a hospital does not monitor their care in an area where mySChospital has measures, this hospital will not have any data to report to mySChospital for that type of care.
• In order for a patient's information to be included in a mySChospital measure, that patient must meet certain criteria. The criteria are required to increase the chance that the information reported for each hospital is the same. If a patient's information does not meet this criteria, that case is removed from the measure. On occasion, this will eliminate all cases from the report for an individual hospital even though they provide that type of care.

Data collected, but not enough cases to be representative of care provided in this reporting period?

The medical and surgical services measures include cases that are collected over four calendar quarters. Each quarter, the reports are updated to include more current quarters. In order to meet the mySChospital criteria for public reporting, a hospital must have at least 25 cases in the four quarters that are combined to make up that report. The 25 case minimum requirement increases the chance that the rate reported accurately represents the hospital's patient population for that measure. If a hospital has submitted cases, but does not meet the 25 cases minimum requirement, a + sign appears for that measure.

What are the measures?

mySChospital reports measures that help consumers understand how effective a hospital is at providing care that research indicates will lead to the best outcomes. Some of the measures focus on the quality of care for specific diagnoses or procedures, while others track progress towards the use of safe practices.

How did you select the measures that are in mySChospital?

The measures in mySChospital were selected because they are common reasons to go to the hospital.  The measures in mySChospital were also selected because they reflect care that is scientifically proven to increase the chance of a positive outcome. By giving consumers information, we can help improve their overall health by sharing with them the kind of care that they should expect to receive.

What patients are included in the mySChospital data?

The data in mySChospital includes all patients regardless of who pays for the care. Some data reported in mySChospital is collected by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) receives all patient data, not just data relevant to Medicare patients.

Yes. The way that data are collected for each measure removes cases that do not meet criteria to this care. For example, if a patient has an aspirin allergy that patient would not be included in the measure that requires an aspirin be given.

Yes. Because the data are updated every few months it would be difficult and costly to update paper copies of the reports. For those consumers who do not have computers at home, computers are readily available at public libraries and in hospitals where people can get help accessing the Web site.

How often are the data refreshed in mySChospital?

The medical, surgical services and index measures data in mySChospital are updated every three months. 

How were the data collected for mySChospital?

The medical and surgical data are collected from individual patient charts and submitted to a third party data system by the hospital staff.  These data collection processes reflect actual care given and in South Carolina hospitals. See Data Collection and Validation for details on how the data for each measure are collected.

No. As hospitals submit the data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the data are audited for accuracy at several points in the data submission process before it is placed in the mySChospital Web site. CMS validates the data by reviewing charts from the hospital's files. The medical and surgical services data are calculated by CMS. An individual hospital doesn't know their rate on any one measure until they receive a report from CMS. Compare it to taking a test, and handing it to the teacher. You don't know your grade until you get the test back.

The data are then accessed by the South Carolina quality improvement organization, The Carolina's Center for Medical Excellence (CCME), which sends the files to SCHA for publication to the mySChospital Web site. CCME is a trusted source of valid information on hospitals. CCME has gathered hospital data for more than a decade, while working with hospitals on projects designed to improve quality.

What period of time was the data collected?

mySChospital uses four rolling quarterly time periods together. The medical, surgical service, and index data are updated every three months (March, June, September, and December). The timeframe that the data in each report were collected is listed at the top of the report.

Will new measures be added in the future?

The reporting of quality and safety measures on mySChospital is a work in progress. The South Carolina Hospital Association, along with participating hospitals, will regularly evaluate other measures to include on the Web site. See Future Measures to learn more.

Who will use mySChospital?

mySChospital may be useful to a variety of health care stakeholders:

1. Insurance companies and employers have asked health care providers to publish information that will be useful in assessing the quality of care received by their members and employees.
2. Consumers may use the information for two purposes: 
    a. To select a health plan when their employer gives more than one health plan option;
    b. To select a hospital in anticipation of a hospital stay.
3. Reporters will use the mySChospital information to learn more about the hospitals in their communities.
4. Legislators are interested in making sure that consumers have access to quality and safety information for decision making.
5. Hospitals will use the data in mySChospital for benchmarking their care and identifying best practice hospitals.

What impact do quality reports have on consumer behavior?

We are in the early stages of consumers taking a more active role in their health care choices. As people bear more financial responsibility for their health care through higher deductibles and co-payments, their need for information will increase. South Carolina hospitals want to have information about quality and safety readily available as consumers need it. At this time, South Carolina is a leader in voluntary reporting of quality and safety information.

South Carolina is committed to be a national leader in voluntary hospital reporting of quality and safety information. Some states have laws requiring hospitals to report this information.

South Carolina hospitals also voluntarily report quality measures to a national initiative called Hospital Compare.