Data that will be used for the Colorado Hospital Report Card is collected and compiled by the Colorado Hospital Association on an ongoing basis from all acute care hospitals in Colorado. The 2007 iteration of the Colorado Hospital Report Card is inclusive of data from the following years: 2004, 2005, and 2006.

The consideration and selection of quality measures for inclusion in the Colorado Hospital Report Card is defined by a rigorous process to ensure consistency and continued applicability. As a general rule, only measures that have met certain criteria have been considered for inclusion in the Colorado Hospital Report Card. This criteria has been defined by quality improvement experts and other related professionals in the healthcare community. This criterion includes the following elements:

• The collection of data and definition of measures must be consistent and unambiguous across all Colorado hospitals.

• The measures and accompanying definition must be understandable and usable to the public.

• The measures must be reliable (consistent) and valid (precise, logical).

• The measures must have statistical significance when used for comparison of hospitals. 

• The measures must be actionable by hospitals and/or healthcare providers.

• The measures must be endorsed by quality standard groups (e.g. National Quality Forum, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions).

• The measures must be applicable to the current public health and healthcare goals for quality improvement.