Dive Brief:
- Web-based hospital ratings found on HHS's Hospital Compare site don't help patients compare hospital quality or performance, according to a new study appearing in Health Services Research.
- Researchers, who analyzed data from the HHS Hospital Compare site, set out to see how well that data helps patients choose top-performing hospitals in their area.
- Although the almost 3,000 US hospitals that provide Surgical Care Improvement Project data generally perform well, researchers say that there is too little variation in the data for patients to differentiate between local hospitals.
Dive Insight:
So, if Hospital Compare data isn't getting the job done, what should the industry do to assist patients in making these decisions? According to Anesthesia Quality Institute Executive Director Richard Dutton, M.D., who spoke with Health Behavior News Service, providers and Hospital Compare should pay attention to more diverse factors that matter more, such as perioperative mortality or the actual occurrence of a surgical site infection. But that's just one physician's opinion. Given the complexity of what they do, it seems likely we'll be debating over the right way to measure hospital quality for decades to come.