Illinois Makes Little Progress In Publicly Releasing Hospital Quality, Performance Data Four Years After Laws Were Approved

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 09 Jan 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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Illinois lawmakers in 2005 passed two laws designed to provide consumers with detailed information on hospital safety and performance, but projects created under the laws have been delayed and no reports have been published, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Among the efforts:

• The Illinois Hospital Report Card, which in 2005 was the nation's first effort to document hospital-acquired infections, remains unpublished;
  
  
• The Illinois Consumer Guide to Health Care, a study of medical care at hospitals and surgery centers to compare performance on 30 medical procedures with wide variations in outcome and cost, was scheduled to be released in January 2006 but has not been published; and
  
  
• The Illinois Adverse Events report, which is focused on serious medical errors, was to begin Jan. 1 but is "nowhere near ready to launch," according to the Tribune.
  

The state's new Division of Patient Safety was supposed to coordinate these efforts and other programs to improve patient care, but one year after the agency was established, it has two employees and has just begun to hire a full staff.

State officials attribute the delays to problems with the original legislation, a lack of funding and staff, and a complicated regulatory process, among other issues. Eric Whitaker, former head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said, "I think we had unrealistic expectations" for what it would take to enact the laws.

Officials predict that the report card will be publicly released by October, and the consumer guide is scheduled for publication this summer. There is no timetable for releasing the adverse events report (Graham, Chicago Tribune, 1/6).

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