http://www.DCPatient.us/2009/10/a-patients-quest-for-quality-in-healthcare/ An Impatient Patient's Perspective on Health Care Today blogged live from Washington DC Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:10:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.DCPatient.us/2009/10/a-patients-quest-for-quality-in-healthcare/comment-page-1/#comment-9 DCpatient Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:54:03 +0000 http://www.DCPatient.us/?p=58#comment-9 Tom, I think physician level data outcomes data is as or more important than overall hospital outcomes data. Just as we are developing more risk assessment calculators where you plug in your personal factors such as BMI, smoking, family history, I'd love to see a physician selection calculator where I could enter race, gender, age, answer questions that determine disease state or severity (such as heartburn sufferer vs. IBD patient), type of insurance and get a recommendation such as here are 3 doctors in a 20 mile radius who have outcomes at or above the national average in treating patients like you, the cost will be in this range, and here are links to the factors we used in making this recommendation. Personalized and tiered information would be the ideal. Thanks for the comment. Tom, I think physician level data outcomes data is as or more important than overall hospital outcomes data. Just as we are developing more risk assessment calculators where you plug in your personal factors such as BMI, smoking, family history, I’d love to see a physician selection calculator where I could enter race, gender, age, answer questions that determine disease state or severity (such as heartburn sufferer vs. IBD patient), type of insurance and get a recommendation such as here are 3 doctors in a 20 mile radius who have outcomes at or above the national average in treating patients like you, the cost will be in this range, and here are links to the factors we used in making this recommendation. Personalized and tiered information would be the ideal.
Thanks for the comment.

]]> http://www.DCPatient.us/2009/10/a-patients-quest-for-quality-in-healthcare/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Tom Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:51:01 +0000 http://www.DCPatient.us/?p=58#comment-7 Great post, Donna. While the intention of quality-transparency sites like HospitalCompare are in the right place, much is needed to turn those intentions into useful information for consumers and other healthcare "stakeholders". It is particularly interesting that there was so much variance in cost (assuming the quality metrics showed negligible differences) between comparable providers in your area. What do you think needs to happen to make the public reporting process more meaningful to us as consumers, and thus to the healthcare "system" in the U.S. as a whole? Please keep writing! Tom Great post, Donna. While the intention of quality-transparency sites like HospitalCompare are in the right place, much is needed to turn those intentions into useful information for consumers and other healthcare “stakeholders”. It is particularly interesting that there was so much variance in cost (assuming the quality metrics showed negligible differences) between comparable providers in your area. What do you think needs to happen to make the public reporting process more meaningful to us as consumers, and thus to the healthcare “system” in the U.S. as a whole?
Please keep writing!
Tom

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