Just What Do Those Rankings Mean? Health Care Marketers Struggle to Evaluate Benefits and Costs
by Sheryl S. Jackson
U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals, Healthgrades, Leapfrog, Hospital Compare, Top Doctors – the list of third-party sources that rank hospitals seems to grow each year. While it is exciting to be named “best” in the city, region, or specialty, what does this information mean to consumers and to health care marketers?
The growing number of organizations that release reports on hospital and physician quality and the validity of the data used in analysis are a concern to the health care community in general. The Association of American Medical Colleges recently released guidelines for public reporting of provider performance. The guidelines emphasize the need for a report to state the intended purpose and target audience; be transparent regarding data collection, risk adjustment, and other methodological details; and validate data and analysis for an accurate reflection of measures.
The Association’s guidelines don’t go as far to name specific reporting organizations. However, the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) not only delineates the criteria that should be used to evaluate reports, but also rates the rating services in its Report on Report Cards: Understanding Publicly Reported Hospital Quality Measures.