The Health and Human Services Department will begin posting hospital mortality data online for heart attacks and heart failure, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced today.

The data, collected from July 2005 to July 2006, tracks the rate of patient deaths within 30 days of admission for those two conditions. By reviewing hospitals' performance, patients can choose a facility based on value, which is "the nexus of quality and price," Leavitt said.

The online effort is part of a larger Bush administration policy to enhance consumer choice in medical care by rating caregivers on how well their patients do. "The vision is competition based on value," Leavitt added.

Although HHS is currently posting results for only two outcome measures at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, that number will grow. Within a year, the department could add pneumonia survival rates, said Herb Kuhn, acting deputy administrator of HHS' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Each year, CMS processes more than 1 billion claims for patient services.

Initiatives to measure patient outcomes and share that data with the public are not without controversy. Some doctors complain that the standards are too rigid and can deter providers from treating very sick patients. A July 25, 1996, New England Journal of Medicine article found that 63 percent of Pennsylvania cardiologists graded annually for a public report card became less willing to operate on severely ill patients.

HHS officials say their data is now adjusted to take into account the gravity of patients' conditions. Seventy-nine percent of the cardiologists surveyed in 1996 said Pennsylvania's measures were not adequately adjusted for such risks.

HHS rates hospitals on whether their outcomes fall within above-average, average or below-average mortality ranges. The ratings carry a statistical confidence rate of 95 percent, Kuhn said.

The department is also adding 12 process measurements to the 10 for which it has collected data since 2005. Process measures gauge how closely hospitals follow standardized medical procedures, such as administering beta blockers to heart-attack patients.

In addition, CMS will begin collecting data on hospital outpatient outcomes later this year and make that information available in January 2008, according to an HHS release.

Perera is a Washington-based freelance writer specializing in technology issues. He can be reached at dave@dperera.com.