Probed by More Transparency, Hospitals Invest in Quality
The Dallas Morning News looks at increased online research by consumers who compare how hospitals fare. Gone is the time when people learned about hospital performance only through word of mouth. Now, with sites such as Medicare’s Hospital Compare, disclosures enable the public to see how each hospital rates on clinical practices known to improve outcomes. Hospitals send data on a voluntary basis to Medicare in exchange of a 0.4 percent increase in their Medicare revenue, which may add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for large hospital groups.
Since quality of care started getting more public scrutiny in the late nineties, hospitals have responded, for instance by sending rapid response teams to patients showing sudden vital sign declines. Some facilities have significantly increased spending and staff dedicated to quality. Initiatives include infection control and safe drug dispensing programs. But quality needs everyone’s attention, so efforts usually imply personnel training and incentives. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations also stopped warning hospitals well in advance of their inspections and now turn up unannounced, so pressure to perform to the par is only likely to increase.
March 4, 2006 Related topics: Quality, Safety, Errors