Medicare Dialysis Facility Clinical and Patient Measures

The dataset contains clinical and patient measures for all Medicare-certified End-Stage Renal Disease dialysis facilities. It is compiled by the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center using data from CMS's ESRD Quality Reporting System and Medicare claims. The FY 2025 data covers measures from January 2020 to December 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyze facility-level Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) and Standardized Hospitalization Ratios (SHRs) to assess patient outcomes across dialysis centers.
• Compare patient characteristics and treatment patterns between ESRD network-level and state-level summaries to identify regional disparities.
• Examine transplantation patterns using the Standardized 1st Transplantation Ratio (STR) statistic, where reported, to evaluate facility performance.
• Investigate hospitalization and emergency department encounter metrics, including the Standardized Readmission Ratio (SRR) and Standardized Ratio of ED Encounters (ED30), for quality improvement initiatives.

Strengths

• Data is derived from authoritative sources including CMS's ESRD Quality Reporting System and Medicare claims.
• Covers all Medicare-certified dialysis facilities, providing a national scope.
• Includes multiple summary levels: facility, state, national, and ESRD network for comparative analysis.
• The FY 2025 dataset contains measures spanning a four-year period from January 2020 to December 2023.

Limitations

• Facility-level statistics for SMRs, SHRs, SEDR, SRR, ED30, and STR are suppressed for facilities with small patient counts, potentially biasing analyses of smaller centers.
• Data files in long format contain more records than most spreadsheet programs can handle, requiring database or statistical software for analysis.
• The dataset is restricted to facilities with at least 11 patients in the fiscal year, excluding very small facilities from the full analysis.

Provenance

Source

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), compiled by the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (UM-KECC).

Collection Method

Derived from the UM-KECC End Stage-Renal Disease patient database, which integrates data from CMS's ESRD Quality Reporting System (EQRS) and Medicare claims.

Time Range

January 2020 to December 2023 for the FY 2025 dataset.

Freshness

Data is updated annually; the latest record indicates an update in February 2026.

Geography

United States (all Medicare-certified dialysis facilities).