The quality of health care delivered by California hospitals is affected by their financial condition. But monitoring the health of the state's 355 general acute care hospitals has been a difficult task, with much of the important data unavailable in a usable format.

The California Hospital Financial Performance Dashboard was created by PricewaterhouseCoopers for CHCF to bring greater transparency to the issue of hospital financial health for the industry, policymakers, and others interested in the strength of our health care system. It is published as part of CHCF's California Health Care Almanac.

The interactive tool uses audited annual data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) from 2001 to 2007. Users can review individual hospital financial performance, as well as aggregate performance in multiple categories, such as hospital systems, geographic regions, counties, and legislative districts. The tool allows users to export entire data sets. The data include patient volume, payer mix, profitability, and capital strength, among many others.

The California Hospital Financial Performance Dashboard was previously at www.calhospitalfinance.net . As of November 2011 the website and tool have been discontinued.