The Quality Indicators dashboard was created using the Quality Indicators (QI) software developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This tool uses inpatient discharge records to analyze healthcare quality. This current report utilizes data for 2019 discharges from the Virginia patient level data (PLD) system. Prior to importing the data, VHI filtered on acute hospitals only and modified the data format of the file to be consistent with the specifications of the software. The software includes built-in data from a reference population, which is an aggregation of yearly discharges from states that participate in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases (SID) and is used to calculate risk-adjusted rates.

VHI previously published QI measures on their website through MONAHRQ, which provided a way for consumers to easily compare hospitals through ratings. VHI carried over this feature and added it to the dashboard. The methodology for how a rating is assigned is as follows:

• Hospital is better than average if the measure’s CI lower bound < state/national average
• Hospital is below average if the measure's CI upper bound > state/national average
• Hospital is average if state/national average is within the measure’s CI upper bound and lower bound

Updated on: 4/6/2021