News: RAND urges more patient input in hospital rankings, creates tool for more specific searches

According to a recent report from the RAND Corporation, public rankings of hospital quality would be more accurate and useful if they incorporated the different ways patients judge a hospital’s performance, HealthLeaders Media reported.

While publicly reported quality data is a frequent focus for facilities as patients may choose a care center based on these ratings, healthcare organizations frequently criticize the ratings for inaccuracies. The critics have been so vocal, that CMS has actually suspended some aspects of their reporting in order to look into the accusations.

The RAND report, which is based on 2016 CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings System data, concluded that more personalization of data would “enhance the value of their overall ratings and rankings to the consumers who might use them.”

To accompany the report, RAND developed a tool called the Personalized Hospital Performance Report Card that asks patients to identify quality factors most important to them, according to HealthLeaders Media. With the tool, patients can choose factors that include

• Mortality
• Safety of care
• Readmissions
• Patient experience
• Timeliness of care
• Effectiveness of care
• Efficient use of medical imaging

Essentially, this tool allows consumers to sort hospitals based on specific data points that they find important.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in HealthLeaders Media. To read the RAND report, click here. To check out the tool RAND developed with their report, click here. To read about CMS’ delayed reporting, click here.