Numerator
Pneumonia patients discharged during October, November, December, January, February or March who were screened for influenza vaccine status and were vaccinated prior to discharge, if indicated
Denominator
Pneumonia patients > 49 years of age
Methodology
Hospital Compare sample rates were downloaded from the CMS web site: http://www.medicare.gov/Download/DownloadDB.asp
Hospital population weights were computed based on estimates imputed from the denominators for Hospital Compare readmissions. Hospital referral region (HRR) rates were computed as the weighted average of the hospital sample rates within the HRR using the population weights.
State rates were computed as weighted averages of the hospital sample rates within the state.