Dive Brief:
- A new survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) asks U.S. hospital leaders about their attitudes towards public reporting of quality measures, including the Hospital Compare Website and finding out if they used public reporting measures for quality improvement.
- About 75% of respondents agreed that public reporting on mortality, readmission, process, and patient experience encourages improvement at their organizations. Nearly all 630 hospitals surveyed felt they could influence performance on processes and patient experience, and almost 90% said their organizations’ reputation was influenced by publicly reported patient experiences. Approximately the same number said they incorporated these measures into their annual goals and regularly review the results with the hospitals’ board and senior leadership.
- However, executives also expressed fear of unintended effects from placing too much emphasis on these measures and said they were concerned about the methods used for gathering information for the reports. Chief quality officers were less likely to agree that public reporting was as important to the hospital, arguing that reporting doesn't significantly stimulate quality improvement and noting that the differences among hospitals aren't large enough to effectively distinguish the good from the bad.
Dive Insight:
About half of the respondents reported being concerned that when hospitals focus on improving numbers, they may use them to game the system by cheating on documentation, or neglect other aspects of care.
In a JAMA piece published alongside the study, Lara Goitein from Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe wrote, “In my view, current policies, although well intentioned, tend to make performance measurement an end in itself rather than a means to better care. The CMS and other health insurers should shift their focus from the reporting of quality measures to the process of improving quality.”