Does publicizing hospital performance stimulate quality improvement efforts?

Health Affairs

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 84-94

  Hibbard, Judith H ^a   Stockard, Jean ^a   Tusler, Martin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OREGON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CONSUMER; EPIDEMIOLOGY; EVALUATION; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; HEALTH PERSONNEL ATTITUDE; HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT; HUMAN; INFORMATION DISSEMINATION; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; PUBLIC RELATIONS; QUALITY CONTROL; STANDARD; STATISTICS; UNITED STATES;

ATTITUDE OF HEALTH PERSONNEL; BENCHMARKING; CONSUMER SATISFACTION; DISCLOSURE; HEALTH CARE SURVEYS; HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION; HUMANS; INFORMATION DISSEMINATION; PUBLIC RELATIONS; QUALITY ASSURANCE, HEALTH CARE; QUALITY INDICATORS, HEALTH CARE; WISCONSIN;

EID: 0037363430     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.22.2.84     Document Type: Article

References (12)

1. M.N. Marshall et al., "The Public Release of Performance Data: What Do We Expect to Gain? A Review of the Evidence," Journal of the American Medical Association (12 April 2000): 1866-1874.
2. E.L. Hannan et al., "Improving the Outcomes of Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery in New York State," Journal of the American Medical Association (9 March 1994): 761-766;
3. G.T. O'Connor et al., "A Regional Intervention to Improve the Hospital Mortality Associated with Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery". The Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group," Journal of the American Medical Association (20 March 1996): 841-846;
4. D. Baker et al., "Mortality Trends for Medicare Patients Hospitalized with Six Medical Conditions during a Program to Publicly Report Hospital Performance" (Paper presented at the annual meeting of AcademyHealth, Atlanta, June 2001);
5. J.D. Clough et al., "Lack of Relationship between the Cleveland Health Quality Choice Project and Decreased Inpatient Mortality in Cleveland," American Journal of Medical Quality (March 2002): 47-55;
6. and W.A. Ghali et al., "Statewide Quality Improvement Initiatives and Mortality after Cardiac Surgery," Journal of the American Medical Association (5 February 1997): 379-382.
7. D.R. Longo et al., "Consumer Reports in Health Care: Do They Make a Difference in Patient Care?" Journal of the American Medical Association (19 November 1997): 1579-1584.
8. Marshall et al., "The Public Release of Performance Data."
9. J.H. Hibbard et al., "Strategies for Reporting Health Plan Performance Information to Consumers: Evidence from Controlled Studies," Health Services Research (April 2002): 291-313.
10. The private report was the same as the more detailed report that the public-report hospitals received on their own performance. The only difference was that the private report had less information about how peer hospitals performed.
11. Seven hospitals were eliminated because of inadequate data. From the private-report group, two hospitals were eliminated because they had closed; two hospitals had too few patients to calculate performance scores or did not offer the services evaluated (ability to calculate at least three of five performance indicators was required); and two hospitals shared administrative structures where the performance data were not separable. From the no-report group, one hospital was eliminated because it had too few indicators of performance. The problems with the adequacy of the data were discovered after the randomization of hospitals. However, even after the elimination of these seven hospitals, there still were no significant differences among the experimental hospital groups in terms of characteristics or performance.
12. The seventeen quality improvement areas included computerized physician order entry, staffing strategies, fall reduction, pain relief, restraints, computerized medical records, other information systems infrastructure, pediatric services, obstetrics/gynecology (maternity services), psychiatric services, emergency services, anesthesiology, radiology, orthopedics, cardiac services, intensive care unit, and other.