Disclaimer:
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)
routinely collects administrative data from hospitals and ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers. Administrative data includes
diagnosis and procedure codes, charges and other patient characteristics as reported on the uniform billing form at the
time of discharge. It does not include all the clinical information contained in the medical record such as lab results
or imaging studies. The data alone, however, does not always present a full picture of a patient's condition, or the intensity
or severity of their illness or injury.
To make comparisons more meaningful, this website accounts for differences among each facility’s mix of patients,
including the severity of the patient’s condition by using the 3M All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Group (APR-DRG)
risk adjustment system. The data are risk adjusted to minimize the differences in a hospital's patient mix,
so that differences in performance are based on the quality of care delivered, rather than the characteristics of the patient
population.
Please note that some individual patient factors cannot be accounted for, such as, smoking, diet, obesity and other lifestyle
issues.
Legal Disclaimer
Facility Disclaimer
Physician Disclaimer
Legal Disclaimer:
The information contained in this website is intended for those interested in learning more about conditions and procedures
performed in Florida’s short term acute care hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, and does not constitute a professional
engagement between the user and any facility or physician. The accuracy of the website, and the information and resources
identified by the Agency therein, are not warranted or guaranteed by the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency),
or intended to be legal, health, medical or professional advice but merely conveys general information. We advise that you
seek advice from qualified professionals for the most accurate information. You are further encouraged to discuss the information
on this website with your physician or primary provider. In no event shall any facility or physician be liable for any direct,
indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict
liability or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this website or its links, even
if advised of the possibility of such damage.
Facility Disclaimer:
- All active (open) facilities are shown on the website; however, the data only represents the facility’s cleaned and
certified data that is available for the time period reported. The data in some cases may represent less than four quarters
(1 year) of data or less than 12 quarters (3 years) of pediatric inpatient data. This may occur when a facility is new or
exempt. For a listing of the certification status of the reporting facilities,
click here.
Facilities excluded from reporting:
- Closed facilities
- Long and short term psychiatric facilities
- VA Hospitals (patient data not reported to AHCA)
- Inpatient Residential Treatment Facilities (IRTFs)
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals
- Per Rule 59B-9.011(6) F.A.C., Ambulatory Surgery Centers with fewer than 200 patient visits during a reporting quarter may
request an exemption, thus these facilities will be denoted as ‘Insufficient Volume to Report’. However, facilities
with at least one or more quarters of data, that have a mixed reporting of both data and exemptions during four quarters
(1 year), will have the available data displayed.
- There are coding differences between hospitals. Some hospitals code in more extensively than others. While hospitals
are allowed to submit up to 31 diagnosis codes, some report on those codes relevant to that specific hospital encounter.
Some hospitals report data on all patients, not just the acute care conditions provided on this website. For example,
hospitals that submit data on “hospice” patients will show a higher than expected mortality rate.
- It is sometimes difficult to classify diseases accurately. The codes contained in the patient record may not be specific
enough to adequately characterize a patient's condition.
- The data is limited to only what occurred during that encounter. It will not reflect any events that occur after the
patient was discharged. For example, a patient may have been discharged alive but died two days later.
- Patients might have developed a complication or infection but the data do not note whether the condition was present on
admission. The Agency began collecting “present on admission” in January 2007 and future updates will
incorporate this adjustment indicator into the comparative data.
- The information presented is a snapshot of the data from the most recent available 12-month time period.
- Charges shown are the facilities' risk-adjusted billed rates. Patients rarely are required to pay the full charges, so the
charge comparison may not be the most meaningful indicator of what you can expect to pay. Patients with insurance coverage
should check with their health plan to find out the amount they will be expected to pay for care at that hospital. Physician
charges are not included.
- Differences in comparative hospital performance may be due to many facility-related characteristics. For example, teaching
hospitals may have a higher than normal number of patients transferred in from other hospitals. While the risk adjustment
methodology used on this website is intended to minimize the impact of this, this should be considered in reviewing the
data.
- Practice decisions differ somewhat from physician to physician, and collectively may explain some differences in charges
and outcomes across facilities.
Physician Disclaimer:
- The physician volume data presented is submitted by the hospital and not the individual physician.
- It is best to consider the surgical volume listed on this website as just one component of the information you should gather
to make the best decision for your care. You should also consult with your primary care physician and your health plan provider
whenever choosing a surgeon or hospital.
- It is unclear if there is a relationship between surgeon volume and quality.
- Limitations:
- Orthopedics is a specialty of immense breadth and variety. The field of orthopedics encompasses a wide variety of diseases
and conditions, including but not limited to, fractures and dislocations, torn ligaments, tendon injuries, ruptured discs
and low back pain, bone tumors, muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. Because this focuses on total hip and total knee
replacements, it may include only a portion of the work that an orthopedic surgeon performs.
- Considering only one year of volume data may not accurately represent a particular physician’s typical annual volume
or lifetime volume. They may have taken a sabbatical or a medical leave of absence during the year or may be doing fewer
procedures when approaching retirement.
- It is also difficult to recognize good quality in a young physician who hasn’t been in practice long enough to have
performed as many surgeries as older colleagues, but is newly trained with the latest techniques.
- The volume by individual physician will, in some cases, understate their actual volume for that procedure. The data on this
website does not include those physicians that sometimes perform surgery in neighboring states and VA hospitals. Also, it
does not include physician volume in those facilities that have closed during or after the reporting period.
- In addition, patients sometimes need several surgical procedures during a hospitalization. The volume data displayed on
this website only report on the first procedure listed on the patient record; therefore if a physician performed a procedure
that was listed second, third or later on the medical record, the physician would not have been credited with performing
it.
- Physicians who performed less than 10 total hip and total knee replacements combined statewide were suppressed from the
data and will not be shown on the website, thus those physicians who actually perform the procedure may not be displayed.
- This data does not include information about partial hip replacements, which are often performed to treat conditions other
than those treated by total hip replacements.
- IMPORTANT: The physician volume methodology varies from the Compare Hospitals facility level information on hip and
knee replacements, which include total and partial replacements thus the totals are not comparable.