Quality Through Risk Models
The risk models behind your quality rankings, captured in real time.
Hospital quality rankings are driven by risk models — and risk models are driven by documented diagnoses. HITEKS captures the diagnoses behind those rankings in real time, at the point of care, inside 
, so the clinical picture in the chart matches the clinical picture at the bedside.
The Elixhauser Comorbidity Index
Introduced by Anne Elixhauser and colleagues in a 1998 Medical Care paper, the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index defines 38 comorbidity measures used to characterize how sick a patient population truly is.
How the measures qualify
Only secondary diagnoses qualify as comorbidities under the model. 18 of the measures are present-on-admission sensitive, comorbidities must affect the current encounter, and hierarchies apply so that related conditions are not double-counted. Getting these details documented correctly — while the patient is still in the hospital — is exactly what real-time capture inside makes possible.
Van Walraven mortality weighting
In 2009, Van Walraven introduced a weighting scheme that condenses the Elixhauser comorbidities into a single mortality score, giving each documented comorbidity a measurable impact on predicted outcomes.
Why it matters
These risk models power AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators, CMS value-based payment, and US News & World Report rankings. When the diagnoses behind them are captured accurately in real time, your quality rankings reflect the care you actually deliver.
