MediQual™ is the clinical information management business of Cardinal Health. For over 20 years we have provided clinically sound, scientifically superior products and services for the measurement and improvement of hospital performance. Today MediQual™ has expanded its technology to provide even better solutions to what we have always done best... getting information to the people who use it!

Reporting Risk Adjusted Outcomes

Demands for relevant, meaningful measures and systems that can drive improvements in healthcare are increasing; business executives, clinicians and the public want to know that their hospitals provide quality care in a cost-effective manner. Ensuring that valid, clinically risk adjusted comparisons of processes and outcomes are used will help all parties collaborate more effectively to achieve this goal.  But risk adjustment based on claims data alone is not enough.  And clinicians agree. There is evidence that claims data enhanced with automated clinical data provides greater predictive power to risk adjusted methodologies.

MediQual™ has developed scientifically sound statistical models over the past 20 years.  We use proven quality science to risk adjust data using both automated clinical and administrative data to achieve a more precise predictive power at the lowest cost. Using laboratory results data coupled with data from billing systems, both of which are available electronically in most hospitals, achieves much greater accuracy in assessing quality and outcomes.  It also provides information about the risk adjusted outcomes in a form that is readily comparable across hospitals.

In contrast to other risk adjustment approaches, MediQual's™ scientifically proven approach allows more rigorous quality comparisons in its use of admission based data, rather than discharge based administrative data. Using data that is available at the start of an admission as the basis of our risk models is critical to ensure that the impact of care delivery processes does not impact the assessment of the patient's risk on admission.  By enabling comparison of admission based risk adjusted outcomes, MediQual™ better supports hospitals' efforts to accurately and efficiently assess quality and performance.

The following goals can be achieved by using MediQual's™ risk adjustment methodologies:

• Stratify patients by admission based severity of illness
• Facilitate "apples to apples" comparisons
• Identify variation in hospital and provider performance
• Predict mortality and LOS using a validated methodology

Call Professional Services at 800.223.8810 option 2 for more information or e mail us at messages@mediqual.com.