30-Day Post-Hospital HF Discharge Care Transition Composite Measure

This measure scores a hospital on the incidence among its patients during the month following discharge from an inpatient stay having a primary diagnosis of heart failure for three types of events: readmissions, ED visits and evaluation and management (E&M) services.

These events are relatively common, measurable using readily available administrative data, and associated with effective coordination of care after discharge. The input for this score is the result of measures for each of these three events that are being submitted concurrently under the Patient Outcomes Measures Phase I project's call for measures (ED and E&M) or is already approved by NQF (readmissions). Each of these individual measures is a risk-adjusted, standardized rate together with a percentile ranking. This composite measure is a weighted average of the deviations of the three risk-adjusted, standardized rates from the population mean for the measure across all patients in all hospitals. Again, the composite measure is accompanied by a percentile ranking to help with its interpretation.