Hospital Quality

Hospital Rating Web Sites 

Hospital Compare

Operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Hospital Compare has two main components: clinical quality and patient satisfaction. Since data submission is essentially a requirement of participation in Medicare, most hospitals submit data. The government's goal is to encourage competition and consumerism through supplying this information and thereby reduce health care costs. However, in typical beauracratic style, the ratings on Hospital Compare can be complex for the consumer to understand and some experts have found fault with the methodology.

HealthGrades

HealthGrades is an independent quality rating organization that reviews nearly all U.S. hospitals through a proprietary analysis of publically available data sources. While HealthGrades rates all hospitals, it makes its money from consulting and selling licensing rights allowing hospitals to use their ratings in advertising and promotion. HealthGrades has also branched out to begin rating physicians as well as proving their ratings in hard copy form. General rating information on their web site is free, but detailed reports are available for a fee.

Thomson Top 100 Hospitals

Now in it's 15th year, the Top 100 hospital awards analyze U.S. hospitals on both clinical and administrative (read "finacial") dimensions. The program has gone through several name changes throughout the years: formerly known as the Solutient Top 100 Hospitals Zward, Solucient was acquired by Thomson Healthcare, which recently acquired Reuters, becoming Thomson Reuters. A standing joke in the industry is "Exactly how many Top 100 hospitals are there?" The question has some validity since awards are made each year in several specialty areas such as national, cardiovascular, performance improvement, and so forth. Hospitals from five varying size segments are included in the national results so there is representation from large academic centers and small primary care hospitals, as well as everything in between.

U.S. News & World Reports Best Hospitals

The newsmagazine U.S. News and World Reports has been reviewing hospitals for nearly two decades. The results look at hospitals in 16 specialty areas (cancer, heart, orthopedics, etc.) as well as children's hospitals. Unfortunately, the criteria used virtually assures that only larger, academic medical centers are included making the results of somewhat limited usage. In 2007 there were just 173 hospitals listed. Results are typically published annually in July.

Quality Check by The Joint Commission

This consumer site operated by The Joint Commission (formerly more clearly named The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), allows individuals to view the accreditation status of hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare organizations, as well as other specialty area accreditations or quality awards that the facility may have earned. Drilling down into a specific organization's listings will provide additional detail on their performance in specific areas. These use check marks and plus or minus symbols to attempt to summarize these rather complex measures.

The Leapfrog Group

The Leapfrog Group is a quality initiative sponsored by large payers and corporations -- organizations representing $62 billion in healthcare expenditures. The group attempts to influence the cost of health care through making quality information available and encouraging shifting volume to higher quality facilities or paying different rates based on quality ratings. Some argue that Leapfrog's ratings skew to favor larger facilities.

Physician Quality & Satisfaction Ratings 

Organizations providing physician quality ratings

Angie's List

Consumer-reported satisfaction of physicians by popular specialties.

HealthGrades

Fee-based doctor reports that include certifications, traning, patient opinions and state licensing information such as professional misconduct.

Where to Find Care

Consumer-generated ratings of hospital and other outpatient facilites.

Hospital Quality Web Sites for Individual States 

California

Sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation.

Minnesota

Sponsored by the state hospital association.

Oregon

Sponsored by the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.