Wall Street Journal Examines Hospital Quality, Comparison Web Sites

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 13 Jul 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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Consumers "have access to a growing range of data on hospital quality" published online, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, so-called best practices information -- which could represent the "biggest category" of available hospital quality data -- tracks whether hospitals follow recommended guidelines for some procedures.

Possibly the "best-known source" for hospital data is Hospital Compare, a joint effort by CMS, hospitals and other groups that lets consumers search by city, state or other criteria and look up a variety of statistics comparing more than 5,000 hospitals to one another, as well as to state and nationwide averages.

Health care experts note that private and public organizations providing such data focus only on processes and not on patient outcomes. In addition, most of the best-practices data focus on heart attack, pneumonia and surgery care.

Some states -- including New York and Pennsylvania -- publish online outcomes data for certain procedures at hospitals. Denise Love, executive director of the National Association of Health Data Organizations, said many states collect data for public health or other uses, but only about 20 provide public quality reports that consumers can access.

The private company Health Grades rates physicians and hospitals on 32 conditions and procedures and includes data from more than 5,000 large hospitals nationwide. Health Grades also uses Medicare billing data to provide specific percentages of complications or death rates.

"Although online tools make hospital comparisons more thorough than ever," health care experts say consumers should not rely on such data alone, the Journal reports. According to John Connolly -- president and CEO of Connolly Medical, which publishes lists of top physicians -- "What most consumers have to rely on is not hard data." Connolly added, "Reputation becomes probably the most important thing consumers rely on" (Francis, Wall Street Journal, 7/10).

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