The Association of Health Care Journalists has recently updated its Hospital Inspections website, which now features a searchable database of government inspection reports detailing hospital violations from January 2011 to the present. The website offers information on inspections conducted at acute-care hospitals, critical-access hospitals, and psychiatric hospitals as a result of complaints. Users can easily search for reports by using keywords, hospital names, city, and state, and can also specify the time period for their search.
With over 24,000 inspection reports and a total of 109,162 individual deficiencies covered in the database, users can access details such as the inspector’s narratives for each violation. However, it’s important to note that the database does not include reports from long-term care hospitals or routine inspections.
The Association of Health Care Journalists obtains this information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide regular updates on the website. The site was launched in 2013 after advocacy efforts pushed for the release of deficiency reports in electronic format, instead of requiring reporters and the public to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with government agencies.
Journalist Jordan Rau has reported on these recent updates made by the Association of Health Care Journalists to its Hospital Inspections website. In June, he will be demonstrating how to use the inspection tool and interpret inspection reports at the Health Journalism 2024 event in New York City. The panel discussion will also touch upon other sources of hospital quality data.
