Relias Media - Continuing Medical Education Publishing

The trusted source for

healthcare information and

CONTINUING EDUCATION.

  • Sign In
  • Sign Out
  • MyAHC
    • Home
      • Home
      • Newsletters
      • Blogs
      • Archives
      • CME/CE Map
      • Shop
    • Emergency
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Libraries
    • Hospital
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Libraries
    • Clinical
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
    • All Access
      • Learn More
      • My Subscription
    • My Account
      • My Subscriptions
      • My Content
      • My Orders
      • My CME/CE
      • My Transcript
    Home » Blogs » Hospital Report » Public reporting -- Where do we go from here?

    Hospital Report
    Hospital Report RSS FeedRSS

    Hospital Report Website Blog Header

    The premier resource for hospital professionals from Relias Media, the trusted source for healthcare information and continuing education.

    Follow @ReliasMedia on Twitter for article updates and more.

    Public reporting -- Where do we go from here?

    By Russ Underwood

    March 14, 2012
    No Comments
    Reprints
    Facebook Twitter Linkedin Share Share

    Blog Topics

    Access Management

    Accreditation

    Behavioral Health

    Case Management

    Compliance

    Cost savings

    Disaster Planning

    Employee health

    Healthcare reform

    Infection Control

    Leadership

    Liability & Risk Management

    Marketing

    Medical Ethics

    Medicare

    Patient Education

    Patient Safety

    Patient Satisfaction

    Quality Improvement

    Reimbursement

    Risk Management

    Staff Education

    Staff satisfaction

    Strategic Planning

    Surgery

    Wellness

    The goals of public reporting have always been noble. Ideally, it would lift the curtain of secrecy on clinical outcomes and let consumers make more informed choices about their healthcare. Many speculated that it would also encourage poor-performing hospitals to clean up their act and provide better care.

    But a recent study suggesting that Medicare’s Hospital Compare initiative has had little or no impact on mortality for three important conditions has led some to wonder whether public reporting of healthcare data is really worth the time and expense involved.

    The modest impact of Medicare’s public reporting initiative shouldn’t be too surprising. After all, there’s little evidence that general consumers are even aware of Hospital Compare, much less actually using it to help them select a hospital. And if the public’s indifferent, then public reporting loses much of its power to influence hospitals’ behavior and improve outcomes.

    Some suggest the general lack of awareness of the data may not be a bad thing. This week, the Columbia Journalism Review questioned whether healthcare journalists should be using it in their coverage of local hospitals, stating “The data, it seems, may not be ready for prime time.” In the Q&A that follows, Kaiser Health News reporter Jordan Rau says, “These metrics…were created for a different purpose. The original aim was to help hospitals look at and track internal problems. They were not set up to compare one hospital with another.”

    Indeed, teaching hospitals have complained recently that they unfairly got a black eye when a Medicare evaluation of hospitals indicated that their patients are at higher risk for preventable complications. Many responded by claiming that the measures used didn’t take into account the fact that teaching hospitals often care for sicker patients and perform more complex surgeries.

    In any case, public reporting of hospital performance on a host of performance measures isn’t going  away, and I don’t really think it should. There’s virtue in transparency, but let’s also be transparent about the fact that these measures aren’t perfect and there’s no perfect way to provide a simple comparison of hospital performance.

    And as I’ve stated before, none of this works without a greater level of statistical and health literacy among the consumers public reporting is supposed to benefit.

    Post a comment to this article

    Report Abusive Comment

    Shop Now: Search Products

    • Subscription Publications
    • Books & Study Guides
    • Webinars
    • Group & Site
      Licenses
    • State CME/CE
      Requirements

    Webinars And Events

    View All Events

    Free Email Newsletters

    All Fields Required

    E-Newsletter Options
    • Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
    • American Nurses Credentialing Center
    • American College of Emergency Physician
    • American Board of Internal Medicine: Maintenance of Certification
    • California Board of Registered Nursing
    • Commission for Case Manager Certification
    • American Academy of Pediatrics
    • American Osteopathic Association
    • Home
      • Home
      • Newsletters
      • Blogs
      • Archives
      • CME/CE Map
      • Shop
    • Emergency
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Libraries
    • Hospital
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
      • Libraries
    • Clinical
      • All Products
      • Publications
      • Study Guides
      • Live Webinars
      • On-Demand Webinars
    • All Access
      • Learn More
      • My Subscription
    • My Account
      • My Subscriptions
      • My Content
      • My Orders
      • My CME/CE
      • My Transcript
    • Help
    • Search
    • About Us
    • Sign In
    • Register
    Relias Media - Continuing Medical Education Publishing

    The trusted source for

    healthcare information and

    CONTINUING EDUCATION.

    Customer Service

    customerservice@reliasmedia.com

    U.S. and Canada: 1-800-688-2421

    International +1-404-262-5476

    Accounts Receivable

    1-800-370-9210
    ReliasMedia_AR@reliasmedia.com

    Mailing Address

    • 1010 Sync St., Suite 100
      Morrisville, NC 27560-5468
      USA

    © 2019 Relias. All rights reserved.

    Privacy Policy  Terms of Use  Contact Us  Reprints  Group Sales

    For DSR inquiries or complaints, please reach out to Wes Vaux, Data Privacy Officer, DPO@relias.com

    Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing