Public Reporting of VA’s Quality and Safety Data

Aspire to Quality

Fact Sheet for Stakeholders

• VA is expanding data on its Hospital Compare website to include critical inpatient and outpatient outcome and process measures such as readmission and mortality rates. This data will be available to the public on November 22. 
• The metrics reflect strong improvements, and the report details the high goals VA is working to achieve for next year. No other health care organization provides this much information to the public about its ability to care for patients. 
• VA is committed to public transparency, including the sharing of performance and quality data, as a way to help Veterans and their families make informed decisions about their medical care. 
• VA’s transparency program includes sharing our health care goals, successes and opportunities to improve. The new Aspire and LinKS dashboards provide information on how our Medical Centers meet these aspirational goals. The Aspire to Quality data is divided into two sections: LinKS and Aspire. LinKS data is about linking knowledge and systems and includes outcome information for acute care, ICU, outpatient, safety and annual process measures. The Aspire dashboard represents how each of our Medical Centers measure up to quality goals. These goals are designed to be reached over the next few years. 
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is committed to delivering the highest quality and safest health care to our Nation’s Veterans. As part of its commitment, VA strives to keep Veterans, their families and the public at large informed about the quality of care it provides.
• Transparency of quality and safety measures helps assure our stakeholders – Veterans Service Organizations, Congress, and the American people – that the investments in VA care benefits Veterans and the Nation. 
• Public transparency is not a new activity for VA. VA Core Hospital Measures have been available on the Joint Commission website, www.qualitycheck.org, since 2005. VA has published additional Performance Measures on the VA Quality of Care web site, www.QualityofCare.va.gov, since 2008. Also since 2008 VA has publicly distributed reports of facility performance on www.Data.gov. More recently, in March 2010 VA expanded outreach to Veterans and their families by offering direct comparisons of VA facilities with private sector counterparts on www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov.