Gary Peterson
Administrator
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posted 11-20-2003 08:44 AM
   
November 20, 2003 - On November 6, the Dialysis Facility Compare database from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was updated with the latest annual information.The Dialysis Facility Compare web site is a feature on the Medicare web site. The Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) feature provides both demographic information and 'quality measures' data about dialysis facilities that have been approved by Medicare. The three quality measures are:- The percent of patients at a facility with a Urea Reduction Ratio (URR) of 65 or greater (known as 'adequacy of hemodialysis'). The adequacy (URR) results are now based on year 2002 data.
- The percent of patients treated with EpogenŽ with a hematocrit of 33 or greater. The anemia (hematocrit) results are now also based on 2002 data.
- Patient survival information. The survival data is now based on the period from January 1999 to December 2002.
Before reviewing this data, be sure to view the Data Collection Details, the Glossary, adequacy data explanations, anemia data explanations, and survival data explanations from the DFC web site. According to Medicare, the source of the adequacy, anemia, and patient survival information is updated continuously and may undergo some level of review. However, not all items have been checked independently to verify accuracy. Please keep in mind that this adequacy and anemia information is from 2002 and the survival data is for the period from January 1999 to December 2002. The data is limited to Medicare beneficiaries and only those who are receiving hemodialysis. Therefore, depending on the number of Medicare beneficiaries and the mix of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients at a particular facility, the data for the entire patient population at that facility may actually vary from what is presented here. Contact the facility for their most current information, their non-Medicare patients adequacy information and adequacy information for patients who are on peritoneal dialysis. Patient Survival Data
There are 4287 dialysis facilities currently in the database. Approximately 2 percent of these have been determined to have "better than expected" patient survival rates and another 3.5 percent have been determined to have "worse than expected" survival rates. The dialysis facilities are listed in these linked files:Better Than Expected Patient Survival (94 facilities). "Better than Expected" means that the patients treated in facilities that fell into this category generally lived longer than expected by at least 20% for the period between January 1999-December 2002. Worse Than Expected Patient Survival (144 facilities). 'Worse than Expected' means that the facility's actual patient survival (for the period between January 1999-December 2002) is worse than what is expected by at least 20%. 3544 facilities fell into the "Expected Patient Survival" category. 555 of 4287 facilities had no survival data.
[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 12-16-2003).]
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