Peer group profiles

A peer group is a cluster of facilities used for external benchmarking. In addition to our 1600+ standard peer groups, we also offer custom peer groups, so you can target the most meaningful comparisons based on criteria such as centers of excellence, teaching status, bed size, geography, and much more. The result is the identification of the most significant opportunities for performance improvement.

NOTE: See the Peer groups list for a complete list of all currently available standard peer groups.

Types of peer groups

Clinical Analytics provides two types of peer groups, Medicare and All-Payer. The Medicare peer groups are based solely on Medicare discharges received from CMS in the MedPAR file. The All-Payer peer groups are based on all patients, regardless of payer, as received from HCUP or individual states. See Benchmark data sources for specifics on available benchmark data or contact Support for a list of all facilities contained within your Peer Group of interest.

Using peer groups

Before you can create a peer group profile, the desired benchmark data must be loaded onto your server. This can be done from the Benchmarks tab in Axiom Administration.

Once the benchmarks are loaded to your server, you can create Peer group profiles in the Scorecards or Physician Practice Evaluation (PPE) applications. See Customize profiles for more information.

Custom peer groups

We allow organizations to create custom peer groups for use in analyzing performance measure data. The custom peer groups give your organization unlimited potential to create meaningful benchmark comparisons. The custom peer groups can be Medicare or All Payer. Contact Support for more information or to request a custom peer group.

Standard peer groups

The following tables describe the categories of standard peer groups available for both All Payer and Medicare cases. For a full list, see Peer groups list.

Geography peer groups
Nationwide	Includes facilities by type of healthcare organization
States	Includes facilities within each state
Metropolitan Areas	Includes facilities within a metropolitan area, as defined by Dartmouth Atlas HRRs (Healthcare Referral Regions) and HSAs (Healthcare Service Areas).
RAC Regions	Includes facilities in the 4 RAC (Recovery Audit Contractor) regions

Bed size peer groups
State by Bed Size	Includes facilities within a state by bedsize ranges (either 1-250 beds or >250 beds)
Bed Size Groups Includes all facilities grouped by number of Staffed or Licensed beds:	Less than 25
	25 - 49
	50 - 99
	100 - 249
	250 - 499
	500 - 999
	Greater than 1000

Health Systems, Alliances, and Hospital Types peer groups
Health Systems	There are almost 400 health systems in the United States that represent over ½ of the nation’s hospital care. Each health system has been set up as a peer group.
Teaching Hospitals	Includes facilities that are considered to be major teaching facilities
VHA Hospitals (nationwide or by VHA region)	These peer groups include facilities that have been identified as members of VHA. In addition to the nationwide VHA peer group, there are also peer groups for each VHA region.
TJC Hospitals	Subsets of facilities identified by The Joint Commission
VHA Hospitals (nationwide or by VHA region)	These peer groups include facilities that have been identified as members of VHA. In addition to the nationwide VHA peer group, there are also peer groups for each VHA region.
Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions	Includes facilities that have been identified to be Children’s Specialty Hospitals and Related Institutions

World-class performance groups

Clinical Analytics Software has set up peer groups of top-performing care sites to assist healthcare organizations in benchmarking to the best of the best. By benchmarking against top-performing organizations, a healthcare organization understands what is needed to achieve world-class performance.

Best performing peer groups
Best Hospitals	Includes top performing facilities for Cancer, Diabetes & Endocrine, Epilpsy, and respiratory distress treatments
Cancer	Includes subsets of facilities with specific cancer programs
HealthGrades 100 Best Hospitals	Includes all 100 facilities identified by HealthGrades
Nurse Magnet Hospitals	Includes all Nurse Magnet Hospitals nationwide