StarPRO Announces Free, Easy to Use Healthcare Compare Tool

BUFFALO, N.Y., February 13, 2019 (Newswire.com) - StarPRO, a Start-Up NY software solutions, and data analytics company, released StarCompare, a free, easy to use web-based tool that allows users to quickly compare local, state or national nursing home quality, staffing, and health inspection performance levels before choosing care. The tool can be accessed for free on any device at starpro.io/StarCompare or at getstarpro.com.

StarCompare visually simplifies vast amounts of complicated governmental data collected by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, CMS, on more than 15,500 nursing homes nationwide. Users can compare the overall star ratings between facilities within a specific zip code locally or nationwide. The tool helps users gain a better understanding of how the three measures selected by CMS - health inspection scores, staffing hours and quality outcomes impact a facility’s overall star rating. StarCompare displays the most currently published data and automatically refreshes key information that identifies facilities in the top ten percent nationally, as well as those with recent fines, health inspection issues, and payment denials. Unlike other free consumer tools, StarCompare displays the most currently available information on all nursing homes regardless of whether or not they are a paid advertising customer, and on a timely basis rather than releasing the performance rankings once a year like some publications.

“All nursing homes are not the same, and we have created a better way to put relevant, understandable data into the hands of patients, caregivers and those professionals who assist individuals during unexpected moments of need,” stated Colleen Muncy, managing director. “Yearly reporting on health care facilities’ performance levels is outdated and inadequate. The public deserves timely, transparent, reliable information to make more informed decisions when narrowing down the list of homes to visit. This is how we’re raising the bar on quality of care within nursing homes.”

Current health care reform initiatives promoting value over volume are resulting in shorter hospital lengths of stay. As a result, patients can learn unexpectedly that they will be discharged within a day or two to a rehabilitation facility for a short-term stay. This creates an immediate need to choose a facility, which is most often located within a nursing home, with little time to research or tour the options. Hospital social workers, discharge planners, and family members can now use the StarCompare tool to research and generate up-to-date lists highlighting the three CMS measures and their performance data. “StarCompare creates a more useful comparative list of the facilities and how they rate, as opposed to the alphabetical listing that’s currently given to patients before discharge from the hospital,” Muncy stated. If patients learn that their top choice for a facility is not available, StarCompare also helps them weigh the pros and cons of other facilities with bed availability. 

For more information, or for a free demonstration, visit www.getstarpro.com.

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Contact:

Colleen Muncy, managing director, (716) 417-1594

StarPRO™

NYS Center of Excellence, Bioinformatics and Life Sciences Building

701 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203

Source: StarPRO