Hospital inspection records from this year have been added to the searchable HospitalInspections.org website. The site, created and run by the Association of Health Care Journalists, now has 29,428 records of hospital inspection results, covering from January 2011 into March 2018. Most of the records include a detailed report on each deficiency found in hospitals.
The site uses a file from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The site, open to the public, allows searches by keyword, city, state and hospital name.
AHCJ members can also download the latest data for their own searches and analysis. They also have access to resources and tip sheets about how to best use the data in their reporting.
The website includes the results of government inspections of acute-care hospitals, critical-access (rural) hospitals and psychiatric hospitals resulting from complaints. It does not include reports of deficiencies found at long-term care hospitals, nor does it include the results of routine hospital inspections.
AHCJ launched the site in March 2013 following years of advocacy urging the government to release the deficiency reports in electronic format. Until then, reporters and the public had to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with CMS to obtain the documents.
