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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 15-570

NOTICES

Special Reports and Requests for Data

[45 Pa.B. 1578]
[Saturday, March 28, 2015]

 The Health Care Cost Containment Council (Council), according to Act 89 as amended by Act 14, and as amended by Act 3, is required to publish a list of all special reports and data that have been prepared during the previous calendar year. The following represents a summary of the reports and requests for data generated by the Council in calendar year 2014. The list of data fields that are included in the standard public use files are located in PDF files posted on the Council's web site at www.phc4.org (Select ''Services,'' then ''Data Requests,'' then ''Data Descriptions''). Questions about procedures for obtaining access to Council data should be addressed to JoAnne Z. Nelson, Supervisor of Special Requests, Health Care Cost Containment Council, 225 Market Street, Suite 400, Harrisburg, PA 17101, (717) 232-6787, jnelson@phc4.org.

Applicant and Project Description

Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality—Jenny Schnaier

 Statewide 2013 inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and inpatient and outpatient revenue code detail datasets to be used in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), which uses the data for multiple databases, reports, and tools and products. The HCUP databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, and outcomes of treatments at the National, regional, State and local levels.

Allied Services—Robert Cole

 A custom 2012 inpatient discharge dataset of patients with a specific diagnosis discharged from acute care hospitals or long-term acute care hospitals to be used as a part of a presentation to local legislators. The purpose of the presentation is to illustrate the number of patients that require ventilator dependent care, especially those patients who require such care and are discharged to the skilled nursing facility (SNF) level of care. Conclusions about patients seeking care outside their geographic location may be determined. The presentation will also explore cuts in SNF reimbursement for patients who require mechanical ventilation and consider how that has affected existing and future SNF beds that can care for these patients.

Altoona Regional Health System—Kevin Hocken- berry

 Standard facility third quarter 2011 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge datasets for eight hospitals (Clarion Psychiatric Center, Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital, Meadows Psychiatric Center, Eagleville Hospital, Foundations Behavioral Health, Southwood Psychiatric Hospital, DuBois Regional Medical Center and UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside) to be used for a market share study to determine how many patients are leaving Blair County to obtain services.

 A custom 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of patients residing within specified zip codes in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 5 to be used to complete their assessment and determination of the number of physicians that are needed to care for the community as part of a Medical Staff Development Plan.

Armstrong County Memorial Hospital—Dianne Emminger

 Standard second quarter 2012 through first quarter 2013 regional inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Region 1 and Statewide inpatient and outpatient revenue code detail datasets to be used to determine which services Armstrong County patients have to go out of the county to receive.

Berkeley Research Group—Adam Tenenbaum

 Standard Statewide 2008 through 2013 ambulatory/outpatient revenue code detail datasets to be used in litigation.

Bon Secours Health System, Inc.—Gerard Cabunoc

 A 2012 standard regional inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure dataset for Region 6 and custom inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure dataset for patients residing within Region 6 to be used to understand the health care needs of communities in this Commonwealth that Bon Secours Health System serves. Data will help determine variations in health status and access to care and develop appropriate programs and services over time.

Boston University School of Medicine—Amresh Hanchate, PhD

 A custom 2010 and 2011 inpatient discharge dataset of patients 18 years of age and older with derived data fields (number of days between admissions). The data will be used in developing a near-national database for Hispanic adults to characterize Hispanics' patterns of inpatient care usage and the quality of the care they receive. The researchers will examine whether greater access barriers among Hispanics results in higher rates of ambulatory care sensitive conditions—hospitalizations considered to be preventable by access to timely ambulatory care. The data will be used to determine whether Hispanics differ in the hospitals where they receive care, the quality of their care and the outcomes of their care.

Bucknell University—Amy Wolaver

 Standard Statewide 2000 and 2010 inpatient discharge datasets to link with other publicly available data that will be used for health policy research and education purposes by faculty and students. The students will use the data as part of classroom activities to create descriptive statistics as part of constructed exercises. They will perform multivariate analyses to identify factors affecting inpatient discharges and health outcomes. The data will be used in Geographic Information System applications to examine the impact of socio-economic status of patients and hospital's neighborhood on hospitalizations and outcomes. Associations between physical environmental risks and hospital outcomes will also be researched.

Capital BlueCross—David Resek

 Standard facility second quarter 2012 through third quarter 2012 inpatient discharge datasets for five hospitals (Lehigh Valley Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital/Muhlenberg, Chambersburg Hospital, Waynesboro Hospital and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center) to be used in Capital BlueCross pilot in the use of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Indicators Window Software to measure inpatient hospital quality by means of AHRQ's Inpatient Quality Indicators, Patient Safety Indicators (PSI), Prevention Quality Indicators and Pediatric Quality Indicators based on payer-dependent data for selected inpatient hospital facilities.

 Standard facility fourth quarter 2012 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge datasets for 15 hospitals (Pinnacle Health Hospitals, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital/Muhlenberg, Reading Hospital, Evangelical Community Hospital, Ephrata Community Hospital, Holy Spirit Hospital, Geisinger Medical Center/Danville, Sacred Heart Hospital/Allentown, Mount Nittany Medical Center, Chambersburg Hospital, Hanover Hospital, Inc, St Luke's Hospital/Bethlehem, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Waynesboro Hospital) to be used with AHRQ Quality Indicators Windows Software to support their new hospital quality program. By using the data they will calculate AHRQ PSI to maximize the value and impact of their quality initiative. Capital Blue Cross intends to warehouse the data inputs to the program for auditing purposes because part of the program provides financial incentives to participating hospitals that meet or exceed quality criteria defined in the program.

Coordinated Health—Amy Nyberg

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets to be used for internal analysis of utilization, patient origin and destination to understand trends over time.

Corry Memorial Hospital—Barb Nichols

 Standard regional 2012 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Region 2 will be used for strategic planning purposes.

DataBay Resources—Steve Sekely and Mary Ann Augustine

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through second quarter 2014 inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and inpatient and outpatient revenue code detail datasets. The data will be combined with other all-payer health care data to be used to produce various aggregate report files that are offered as health care software products to DataBay's customers. The reports may be by product line, service area, hospital or health system, physician and/or physician group, which can include but are not limited to market share, patient origin, use rates, charges, surgery detail, payer mix, patient demographics, diagnosis/procedure distribution, refinement, and the like.

Deborah Heart and Lung Center—Grant Leidy

 Standard regional 2006 through 2010 inpatient discharge datasets for Regions 8 and 9 to be used to analyze discharges from hospitals to determine where patients receive their hospital care for cardiac procedures and which hospitals serve patients in various zip codes. The information will be used in litigation.

Emory University—Diwas Kc, PhD

 A custom 2001 through 2008 inpatient discharge dataset for records with a major diagnostic category (MDC) of Diseases and Disorders of the Circulatory System (MDC 5) with derived data fields (number of days to next admission, pre-op length of stay and post-op length of stay). The data will be used for a study, An Empirical Analysis of Learning in Cardiovascular Care, that will study the relationship between hospital and physician experience, specialization on patient quality of care and efficiency of service delivery.

Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital—John Grencer

 Standard regional 2013 inpatient discharge datasets for Regions 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to be used for internal analysis of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital's services.

HCR ManorCare—Kenneth Kang

 Standard Statewide second, third and fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge datasets to be used to assess the needs of residents in HCR ManorCare's SNF locations across this Commonwealth.

HealthSouth—Steve Adams

 Standard Statewide 2012 and 2013 inpatient discharge datasets to be used to help determine market share and needs to help better serve HealthSouth's population base.

Highmark—Joseph J. Reilly

 Standard Statewide 2012 and 2013 inpatient discharge datasets to be compared with Highmark claims data to conduct an all-payer market share analysis. The market analysis allows Highmark to understand the primary service area of facilities and to compare the primary service area of Highmark members to the service area of all payers. The data shows where individuals go for care, outmigration patterns and allows for trending of inpatient health care use patterns.

Home Nursing Agency—Richard Lobb

 Standard regional and facility third quarter 2012 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge datasets for Region 3 and 29 hospitals to be used to understand Home Nursing Agency's market share.

Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania—Martin Ciccocioppo

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through second quarter 2014 inpatient discharge datasets to be used to conduct ongoing monitoring of Statewide, regional and hospital-specific quality outcomes, primarily utilizing AHRQ quality indicators. Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) may, from time to time, release the aggregate results of its quality monitoring research. HAP also intends to host MONAHRQ for member-only use on its private web site.

 Standard Statewide third quarter 2012 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge datasets and inpatient revenue code detail datasets to be used by Applied Medical Software (AMS) to develop Statewide and regional best practice financial norms for Pennsylvania hospitals. HAP will use the results of the AMS analysis to determine the viability of inviting Pennsylvania hospitals to participate in performance-based gain sharing program.

 A custom modified three-month quarterly (May 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014) inpatient discharge readmission analysis data report of hospitals' 30-day readmission rates for any reason on all discharges. The data will be used to provide Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with pre-Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) rates of admission. CMS requested aggregate HEN readmission data for three groups of hospitals: 1) all hospitals; 2) hospitals participating in any of the PA-HEN projects; and 3) hospitals participating in the PA-HEN preventable readmissions project. The PA-HEN staff is interested in knowing hospital-specific rates to ensure hospitals with the greatest needs are addressed through the PA-HEN project and to identify the best performers to learn what they are doing right.

 Standard 2013 general acute care hospitals financial data reports to be used to conduct ongoing monitoring of Statewide, regional, and hospital-specific finances and policy impact analysis. The reports will be shared with the American Hospital Association (AHA) for AHA to better understand hospital financial and utilization data by payer for hospitals that do not respond to the AHA Annual Hospital Survey. HAP and AHA will only use the financial data for internal policy analysis.

Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania—Glen Raser

 A modification to a previous request for a custom modified quarterly (September 1, 2013, to December 31, 2013) inpatient discharge report of calculated PSI 3, 12 and 13 observed rates by using the AHRQ quality indicators. The PA-HEN is part of CMS' Partnership for Patients, whose goal is to reduce preventable harm across nine hospital-acquired conditions and preventable readmissions.

IMS Health—Charles Wallace

 Standard Statewide 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets. The data will be combined with other State data and used to estimate diagnoses and procedure volume at the National and facility level, which will be accessible to IMS' clients. Their clients will use the information to track trends in diagnoses and procedures (regionally and Nationally), identify facilities that would be appropriate sites for clinical trials based on procedure/diagnosis volume, and/or to better allocate resources based on procedure/diagnosis volume.

Intellimed—H.G. Koch

 Standard Statewide second, third and fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and inpatient and outpatient revenue code detail datasets. The data will be used to manage cost and quality of health care delivery at the hospital level. The data uses include healthcare business decision making, statistics and individual data element analysis, service line analysis and performance, strategic planning, quality improvement and cost/charge reviews, among others. Intellimed intends to use these data for a variety of analyses, including reporting and ongoing tracking of clinical elements, analysis of utilization patterns, and delivery of information from the data to hospital and health care system decision-makers.

Johns Hopkins University—Caryn N. Bell

 A custom 2010 inpatient discharge dataset of Maryland residents hospitalized in this Commonwealth. The data will be used for a dissertation research project that seeks to determine the presence of ''hotspots'' or geographical clusters of preventable hospitalizations among Maryland residents. The proposed project will calculate the rate of hospitalizations for a set of ambulatory sensitive conditions in each Maryland zip code. The second aim of the project is to determine the impact of racial residential segregation on the presence of preventable hospitalization hotspots. The third aim of the project is to determine the impact of various local health care and health-promoting resources on preventable hospitalization hotspots.

Lancaster General Health—Michael C. Boblitz and Cheryl LaBow

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014 ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets to be used to understand the demands and utilization for ambulatory surgery in this Commonwealth.

LeadingAge PA—Larry Clark

 A custom third quarter 2010 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge data report of the number of inpatient discharges by discharge status per general acute care hospital per year to provide LeadingAge members with inpatient discharge information to better coordinate care with hospitals to prevent excessive readmissions.

Lehigh University—Shin-Yi Chou, PhD

 Standard Statewide second through fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge datasets. The data will be used for AHRQ funded research that will use advanced econometric methods to address health policy relevant questions in this Commonwealth. The overarching goal is to examine the access, quality and costs of health care in this Commonwealth to achieve fair, effective, and efficient health care deliveries as major health care reforms are undertaken. Specifically, the aims are to: explore the effects of hospital market structure, technology diffusion, and health policies on access, quality and costs of health care; and study the environmental effects on health outcomes measured by disease incidences and health care utilizations.

Lehigh Valley Health Network—Stephen L. Christo- poulos

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge datasets to be used for service area analysis, product line trends and analysis, competitive analysis, and incident rate comparison and trends for program development. The data will be used for research population based health issues—promote health and well being of targeted vulnerable populations; internal quality control research; internal resource utilization research; support development of continuum of care research; community based health needs—target chronic illnesses.

Memorial Medical Center—Carrie Arcurio

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets. The data will be used to internally evaluate Memorial Medical Center's current performance, its competitors' performance and future opportunities. The data will be used to illustrate current market share and to enhance various other planning tools such as budgets and 5-year plans.

National Bureau of Economic Research—Amy Finkelstein

 Standard regional 2011 inpatient discharge datasets for Regions 8 and 9 to be used to conduct preliminary analyses for the target population of a randomized controlled trial involving providing transitional care to high-utilizers of hospital care in Camden, NJ. Specifically, the data will be used in conjunction with New Jersey inpatient data to understand where residents from Camden choose to receive hospital care. The study is on whether the intervention approaches developed by the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers impacts health care utilization, health and psychosocial outcomes.

New Solutions, Inc—Nancy Erickson

 A custom 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of patients originating from New Jersey or Bucks, Monroe, Northampton, Philadelphia, Pike and Wayne Counties. The data will be risk-adjusted and produced into reports used by New Solutions for consulting and providing market share analysis to their hospital clients.

OptumInsight—Holli Boetcher

 Standard Statewide 2012 inpatient discharge dataset. The data will be used to provide consumers with hospital quality and efficiency information to help them make more informed decisions about where to seek care and to provide health care professionals with comparison reports. The data will be summarized by hospital and medical procedure/condition to provide information such as cost, length of stay, mortality, complications and volume. The aggregated information will be provided in a reporting tool to health plans for use by their members.

Pennsylvania Department of Health—Carol Thorn- ton, MPA

 A custom 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of Statewide records. The Violence and Injury Prevention Program will use the data for analysis, to respond to requests for aggregate State and local level injury data, and to prepare injury reports: 1) Injuries in Pennsylvania, Hospital Discharge, annual age-specific report of injury data by mechanism; 2) Injuries in Pennsylvania County Profiles, an annual report containing State, regional and county data; 3) Injury-Specific Monographs, which provide data on specific injury topics; and 4) Injury-Specific Fact Sheets, which contain data on specific injuries, identifying risk factors and high-risk groups. The data from these reports and requests will be used by State and local agencies to identify specific segments of the population at highest risk for injury, specific types and causes of injury, and youth suicide prevention planning and evaluation.

Pennsylvania Department of Health—Marina O. Matthew

 A custom 2012 inpatient discharge data report of heart failure, nonfatal traumatic brain injuries, nonfatal spinal cord injuries, hip fractures, asthma or obstetric cases by age, gender and race. The data will be used as a part of a series of the Pennsylvania Department of Health web pages containing State and local data that correspond to the Healthy People 2020 topics/objectives, as developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Pennsylvania Department of Health—Ronald Tringali, PhD, RN

 A custom 2012 through 2013 inpatient discharge data report of asthma, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), carbon monoxide poisoning and heat stress related hospitalization cases with ethnicity indicators by age group, county, gender and race to be used in the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. The data will be provided to the CDC to be used with other health outcomes data, exposure and bio-monitoring data, and environmental hazards and environmental monitoring data to be displayed in aggregate form on the CDC's public portal and analyzed to provide valid scientific information on environmental exposure and adverse risk of health conditions to drive actions that will improve the health in communities.

 A custom 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure dataset of patients with a primary diagnosis of asthma. The Asthma Control Program will use the data to analyze morbidity data for asthma risk education and prevention programs. The interpretation will include analysis of length of stay, charges, general payment distribution among payers, admission types, seasonal and monthly distribution of asthma hospitalizations among different age groups, genders and races in this Commonwealth. The Asthma Control Program will provide the public and Pennsylvania Asthma Partnership, including healthcare providers, with asthma hospitalization data through press releases, conferences, presentations, asthma burden reports, focus reports and asthma fact sheets. The Asthma Control Program will also send reports to the CDC.

Pennsylvania Department of Health—Stephen Muccioli

 Standard Statewide 2012 and 2013 inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and inpatient and outpatient revenue code detail datasets. The data will be used to: 1) compare drug and alcohol hospitalizations; 2) provide the drug and alcohol programs with the necessary information to make informed decisions on the reduction of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction; 3) identify areas of need to assist in Statewide drug and alcohol planning and evaluation; 4) provide surveillance data to the drug and alcohol programs to prepare fact sheets, monographs and statistical reports at the State and local level; and 5) analyzed to support the objectives of the Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success 5-year grant. The grant focuses on problem areas such as underage drinking, prescription drug abuse and drug overdoses in five specific counties.

 Standard Statewide 2012 and 2013 inpatient discharge dataset. The data will be used to: 1) examine diabetes hospitalizations; 2) analyze the data in support of the goal of the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, which is to reduce the burden of diabetes in this Commonwealth by preventing and controlling its complications; and 3) analyze by the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research to provide surveillance data to the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, to prepare fact sheets and county monographs, to create the bi-annual Burden of Diabetes in this Commonwealth report and to respond to requests for aggregate data at the local and State level.

Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare—Jolene H. Calla, Esq.

 A custom third quarter 2011 through second quarter 2012 inpatient discharge dataset of verified self-pay records and 2010 through 2012 financial data report of a 3-year average percent of uncompensated care. The data will be used to compute payments to hospitals for the Hospital Uncompensated Care and Extraordinary Expense programs established under the Tobacco Settlement Act of 2001.

Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General—Tracy W. Wertz

 Standard Statewide 2013 inpatient discharge, ambulatory/outpatient procedure, and inpatient and ambulatory/outpatient revenue code detail datasets to be used for reviews of hospital mergers to ensure compliance with antitrust laws. The data will also be used by the Federal Trade Commission for hospital merger investigations that are conducted jointly with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.

Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority—Mary C. Magee

 A custom 2006 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge data report of cases with pressure ulcer diagnoses in the primary position versus the same diagnoses in any secondary diagnosis comparing average lengths of stay and charges by facility and Statewide per year. The data will be used for comparison with Authority performance to determine if any improvements were made within this Commonwealth.

Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority—David Grinberg

 A custom third quarter 2010 through second quarter 2013 Statewide inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure dataset with derived data fields (number of days to next admission or visit, or both). The date will used to establish baseline measurements of healthcare delivery quality in an effort to better identify and measure any future impact various health information exchange based interventions have on the quality of healthcare delivery.

Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority—Susan C. Wallace

 Custom 2005 through 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure data reports of the number of live births per year Statewide and by hospital. The data will be used to analyze the number of newborn falls per year in hospitals and birthing centers in this Commonwealth for an article for the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory.

Pennsylvania Physical Medicine & Pratter—Bill Hennessey, MD

 A standard Statewide third quarter 2013 ambulatory/outpatient revenue code detail dataset to be used as part of their goal in making medical costs available and known before receiving medical care. The data will be displayed by facility as an average charge or a known specific facility fee per procedure.

Philadelphia Department of Public Health—Giridhar Mallya, PhD

 Standard regional 2012 and 2013 inpatient discharge datasets for Regions 8 and 9. The data will be used for a variety of analyses that allow tracking of diseases requiring hospitalization and descriptions of the hospitalized patient population. Data are used in aggregate form, primarily for research and policy planning, but also for the evaluation of trends in inpatient/outpatient services and cost for HIV, diabetes, violence-related injuries, high-risk pregnancies, and the like.

Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative—Keith T. Kanel, MD

 A custom third quarter 2012 through fourth quarter 2013 inpatient discharge data report of 30-day age-adjusted and sex-adjusted readmission rates on AMI, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and congestive heart failure (CHF) conditions by type of payer for six hospitals (Butler Memorial, Conemaugh Valley, Indiana Regional, Monongahela Valley, Sharon Regional and Uniontown) and for Western Pennsylvania. The data will be used to track changes in readmission rates that may be attributable to a multi-dimensional, Pittsburg Regional Health Care Initiative intervention to improve care for patients with COPD, AMI and CHF in six Western Pennsylvania hospitals.

Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative—Kenneth R. Moore

 A custom second quarter 2011 through 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of records originating from hospitals located within Region 1 or Cambria, Indiana, Lawrence, Mercer or Somerset Counties. The data will be used to study hospital readmission rates of chronic diseases to focus efforts on improving health care safety and quality and plan initiatives for improving health care in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region.

Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative—Robert Ferguson

 A custom third quarter 2009 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of cases with an in-hospital mortality or discharge to hospice during third quarter 2012 through second quarter 2013, with all prior hospitalizations for those patients in the preceding quarters. The data will be used to analyze variations in the content and intensity of hospital-based end of life (EOL) care across this Commonwealth to identify potential opportunities to improve responsiveness to patient requests for lower intensity EOL care.

Renzi Podiatry—Ronald M. Renzi, DPM

 A custom 2009 through 2013 inpatient discharge dataset of cases for residents of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester Counties. The data will be used for publications and as part of the Save Your Soles Campaign program sponsored by Abington Memorial Hospital, which is to reduce amputations in the male African-American community. The data will be used to measure/count the number of amputations by county and zip code, to locate areas with high numbers of amputations and to track patients with risk factors for amputation to evaluate prevention strategies.

Service Employees International Union—Robb Streicher

 Standard Statewide 2012 inpatient discharge and 2005 through 2012 inpatient revenue code detail datasets. The data will be used for an ongoing project to assess the delivery of services in terms of access, cost, quality of care and impact of delivery of services in multiple settings. The data will be used to try to understand the sources of variation in these four aspects of health care provision to ensure beneficiaries receive the right care, at the right time, in the right setting, which will reduce unwanted variation in health care delivery and ultimately lead to cost savings through the elimination of underuse of effective care and the over-utilization of supply-sensitive care.

SG-2, LLC—Nicole Cumorich and Tracy Pfeiffer

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge and third quarter 2010 through first quarter 2014 ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets. The data will be used in a software tool that was developed to support SG-2's client hospitals' long-term and short-term operational and strategic planning efforts. These tools enable their clients to develop 10-year health services demand forecasts by clinical area and geography, to provide them with the ability to project and meet future demands by determining the appropriate allocation of resources and to improve both the quality and availability of health care in the communities they serve.

Southwest Regional Medical Center—Cynthia J. Cowie

 Standard 2011 regional inpatient discharge dataset for Region 1 and Statewide inpatient revenue code detail datasets. The data will be used to address healthcare service shortages, investigate quality of care objectives and promote strategic decisions to benefit healthcare beneficiaries requiring acute care service.

St. Joseph Regional Health Network—Michael N. Hendell

 A standard regional 2012 inpatient discharge dataset for Region 7 to be used to further St. Joseph Regional Health Network's mission to provide high quality health services to the communities it serves. The data will provide an understanding of existing inpatient service mix relative to other acute care hospital providers in the region. The data will influence numerous strategic planning efforts, particularly service line development, partnership analysis and community health service utilization assessments.

Summit Health—Barbara Rossini

 Standard regional 2012 inpatient discharge and 2012 through third quarter 2013 ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Region 5 to be used for strategic planning purposes.

Summit Health—Michele R. Zeigler

 Standard Statewide 2013 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge datasets to be used for internal benchmarking and quality improvement initiatives in a quality assurance tool, which will identify any outliers Chambersburg and Waynesboro hospitals have in order for them to reduce variation and improve patient care.

Susquehanna Health System—Brian Engel

 Standard regional third and fourth quarter 2011 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Region 5 and first quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Regions 2, 4, 5 and 6. The data will be provided to their consultant to be loaded into a database that they host and maintain on behalf of Susquehanna Health. The consultant will use the information for reporting market share and trend analysis to Susquehanna Health, which is exploring entering into other areas.

The Nemours Foundation—Sue Green

 Standard regional 2012 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Regions 5, 7, 8 and 9 to be used to assess the community health needs, level of access, and migration patterns for pediatric and adolescent patients residing in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Truven Health Analytics—Katherine Blumhardt

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets to be used to process, standardize and distribute the data to clients through decision tools, benchmark databases, research, custom studies and other associated products.

University of Chicago—Fabrice Smieliauskas, PhD

 Standard regional 2006 and 2009 through 2012 inpatient discharge datasets for Regions 1 and 9 to be used to study the effect on the utilization of medical procedures and technologies, health care costs, and quality of various physician, hospital and State level factors.

University of Pennsylvania—Meeta Prasad Kerlin, MD, MSCE

 A custom 2008 through 2009 inpatient discharge dataset of patients admitted to all types of Intensive Care Units and patients with a mechanical ventilation procedure linked with Medicare data from CMS. The data will be used for a research study, The Role of Physician Factors in Outcomes of Mechanically Ventilated Patients. The object of the study is to define the relationship between individual physician experience and the outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients. The study has two specific aims: 1) to determine the association of physician experience with outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients; and 2) to determine the relative contributions of individual physician experience and hospital volume in outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients.

University of Pennsylvania—School of Medicine—Brendan Carr, MD, MS

 A standard Statewide 2012 inpatient discharge dataset to be used as part of a research study to examine outcomes of trauma and other urgent surgical conditions. The broad objective of this study is to better understand the variability in outcomes that exists for adults experiencing trauma or requiring other surgical critical care and to identify structures and processes that might contribute to improved outcomes.

University of Pennsylvania—School of Medicine—Karen Hoffer

 A custom 2010 through 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure dataset of patient records enrolled in a randomized trial of behavioral economic interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease risk: Way to Heart Health Study. The data will be used to measure hospitalizations and resource utilization as part of the study's cost effectiveness analysis.

University of Pennsylvania—School of Medicine—Meghan Lane-Fall

 A custom 2009 through 2011 inpatient discharge dataset of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft or valve surgery linked with Pennsylvania Department of Health death data. The data will be used for a study, ICU Staffing and Short-term Outcomes in Cardiothoracic Surgery Critical Care Patients. The data will be linked with survey response data from cardiac surgery intensive care units in this Commonwealth about nurse and physician staffing to analyze the relationship between intensive care unit staffing models and patient outcomes.

University of Pittsburgh—Allan Tsung, MD

 A modification to expand the previous requests for a custom 2006 through 2012 inpatient discharge dataset of adult patients diagnosed with gallbladder cancer diagnosis, linked with 2006 through 2011 Pennsylvania Department of Health cancer registry data. The data will be used to complete an NIH-funded and University of Pittsburgh IRB-approved research study, Factors Affecting Rates of Surgical Intervention in Patients with Hepatic Malignancies. The data will be used to investigate the rates of surgical intervention for inpatients with intrahepatic cancers seen in hospitals in this Commonwealth based on the distance from their homes and the hospital. The results of the study will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center—Matthew W. Michaels

 Standard Statewide second quarter 2013 through second quarter 2014 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets to be used to produce various research reports including: patient origin for UPMC hospitals; UPMC market share in various geographies and for various service lines; utilization trends in volume and market share over different time periods; and physician volumes at UPMC and other hospitals.

University of Rochester Medical Center—Sean Ossont

 Standard regional 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Regions 2, 4 and 6 to be used for strategic and facility planning. The datasets will be provided to their consultant who will create utilization rates and market share information for them.

VNA Health System—Joseph Scopelliti

 A standard facility third quarter 2012 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge dataset for Hershey Medical Center, Geisinger Medical Center/Danville and Mount Nittany Medical Center. VNA was recently awarded a grant by the PA eHealth Authority to analyze and implement DIRECT protocols to improve communication between acute care centers and home health providers. This data will be used to accurately identify and target key patient populations that would benefit from the implementation of this grant.

Wayne Memorial Hospital—James Hockenbury

 A standard regional 2011 through second quarter 2013 inpatient discharge dataset for Region 6 to be used to determine the feasibility of expanding its current cardiovascular program.

WellSpan Health—David Kimpel

 Standard regional 2013 inpatient discharge and ambulatory/outpatient procedure datasets for Regions 5 and 7 to be used for an internal assessment of the delivery of healthcare services within their region. Service area utilization and analysis are the primary purpose for obtaining the data.

JOE MARTIN, 
Executive Director

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 15-570. Filed for public inspection March 27, 2015, 9:00 a.m.]



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