On October 14th, the 6th annual report on the quality of care provided by NJ hospitals, the NJ 2009 Hospital Performance Report, was publicly released and is now available in pdf on the newly redesigned web site at http://www.nj.gov/health/hpr. For the first time, the report includes 12 measures for patient safety (PSIs) developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as required by Senate Bill No. 2371. The report still includes national standards that indicate how well each hospital treats their patients with heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and those who have undergone surgery. In addition, this year's report includes two new measures on surgical care infections.

Consumer-friendly features on the web site have been enhanced so that the web is easier to navigate, read and print. In addition to offering additional consumer tips and information, the web has also been greatly expanded to include measures developed by NJDHSS for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) mortality; mortality inpatient quality indicators (IQIs) developed by AHRQ for heart attack, pneumonia, heart failure and stroke; and the 12 patient safety indicators (PSI).These new measures supplement the existing recommended care measures for heart attack, pneumonia, heart failure and surgical care infection.