Why Not the Best VA? (WNTB VA)
WNTB VA is VA’s external benchmark report. It serves as a reference for VA medical centers (VAMCs) to keep track of U.S. national and regional benchmarks on key health outcome and process indicators. The primary data source for non-VA benchmarks is CMS Hospital Compare datasets. VHA reformatted some of the metrics to maximize available benchmarks for VAMCs. We describe the adjustments and considerations when using this report below:

Healthcare Associated Infection metrics
These metrics are reformatted to unadjusted rates. They are reported as infections per 1,000 device days using the numerator and denominator reported on CMS Hospital Compare.

Surgical Complications based on AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs)
Users should be cautious when comparing surgical complications between VA and non-VA hospitals due to differences in methodology. VA reports risk-adjusted rates for PSI surgical complications, while for non-VA hospitals, CMS reports rates that are ‘smoothed’ to the National Medicare population. For more information about the methodologies, download the AHRQ Quality Indicators Toolkit (PDF).

Patient Population Difference
Most metrics reported on CMS Hospital Compare apply to Medicare beneficiaries (e.g., age 65 and older), while metrics reported for VAMCs may include patients who are not eligible for Medicare due to age and other factors.