In this report, South Pointe Hospital presents data on recognized quality indicators and practices. So that you can compare data, the expected national averages (when available) are displayed. This data does not represent all there is to know about the quality of hospitals, so don’t choose a hospital based solely on the statistics found in this report. Current methods of assessing hospital quality are not mature enough to support such use.

The Quality Report contains volume and or statistical indicators about the following:

(Note the following links display data directly from the http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov website.)

Heart Attack 
Heart Failure

Pneumonia
Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)


Click on Quality Links to see a list of organizations and agencies that promote quality initiatives in healthcare.

Cleveland Clinic also produces a series of outcomes books each year, covering a wide range of medical specialties. The outcomes books include statistics for particular procedures and conditions.

Click here for South Pointe Hospital's Outcome Book.

In this popular series of books, Cleveland Clinic reports data on outcomes, volumes, and surgical and medical trends as well as a review of new medical technologies and innovations. The books are used by consumers and referring physicians to make informed decisions when choosing or recommending a specialist for medical or surgical care. More than 1 million outcomes books have been distributed this year. Cleveland Clinic outcomes books.



Frequently Asked Questions about the Quality Report

How were these quality indicators selected?

National organizations have endorsed certain quality indicators and safe practices. All the indicators or safe practices have extensive research to support their use and are defined so that all hospitals can use the same method for calculating the statistics. In other words, this method allows hospitals to compare apples to apples. Reporting methods are "open," which means anyone can see how the results were obtained. Indicators and safe practices are not perfect, however. We do not agree that all the indicators are valid markers of quality issues. Still, we use the national definition and report our performance so that you can compare the data to other hospitals. This way, you are assured that we are not reporting only our strengths.

Does this quality report include data about individual physicians?

No. We are publishing hospital and physician group data only.

Why is Cleveland Clinic publishing its quality data?

We like what open reporting does for you. As a nonprofit hospital and community resource, we believe that you should know how we are performing. We want patients and families to have better information about the quality of healthcare in Cleveland.

We also like what open reporting does for us. We have found that public reporting has helped us document our care more carefully, obtain more valid data and continually improve patient care.

Finally, we like what open reporting does for hospital care in general. We hope that our quality report will contribute to a better understanding of how to assess, report and improve hospital quality.

What does risk adjusted mean?

The risk of a complication or death varies by patient and by procedure. For example, an older surgical patient who has co-morbid illnesses such as kidney failure and diabetes is at greater risk of developing complications than is a young, healthy patient. Open heart surgery has a greater risk of a collapsed lung than knee surgery does. Risk adjustment mathematically takes into account differences in patient and procedure risk factors, so that comparisons are more meaningful. Risk adjustment allows for comparison of actual performance with predicted performance, based on the average U.S. hospital.

How often will the data on this report be updated?

This report will be updated quarterly or as new data becomes available.