Making the grade: a status report on hospital report cards.

Hospital report cards that document patients' medical outcomes are attracting increasing attention for their role in guiding health care decisions by employers, consumers and providers. Significant questions remain, however, regarding the validity and utility of this information. This Issue Brief is based on a seminar held by the Center for Studying Health System Change at which two expert panels discussed whether report cards make the grade. The first panel approached this subject through a Socratic dialogue that focused on the release of a hypothetical community hospital report card. The second panel weighed in on two research presentations related to report cards. The panelists agreed that efforts to collect and report clinical outcomes data are flawed. Even so, release of the data can help improve clinical quality and foster an environment in which health care quality information ultimately has an impact on health care decision making.