Hospital Quality Initiative

The intent of the Hospital Quality Initiative (HQI) is to distribute clearly defined and objective data about hospital performance. This encourages consumers to discuss and make more informed decisions on how to obtain the best hospital care, provides incentives for hospitals to improve care, and emphasizes public accountability. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses a variety of tools to encourage improvements in the quality of care delivered by hospitals.

These tools include:

• Regulating and enforcing standards set by State survey agencies and CMS.
• Displaying hospital quality information on Web sites for consumers, including Care Compare on Medicare.gov and the Provider Data Catalog on data.cms.gov.
• Testing rewards for superior performance on certain quality measures.
• Using continual, community-based quality improvement resources through the Quality Improvement Organizations.
• Developing collaborative partnerships to leverage knowledge and resources.