Health Policy Research Institute, University of California-Irvine, 100 Theory, Suite 110, Irvine, CA 92697-5800, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2010 Feb;100(2):264-9. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.153759. Epub 2009 Dec 17.
Public quality reports of hospitals, health plans, and physicians are being used to promote efficiency and quality in the health care system. Shrinkage estimators have been proposed as superior measures of quality to be used in these reports because they offer more conservative and stable quality ranking of providers than traditional, nonshrinkage estimators. Adopting the perspective of a patient faced with choosing a local provider on the basis of publicly provided information, we examine the advantages and disadvantages of shrinkage and nonshrinkage estimators and contrast the information made available by them. We demonstrate that 2 properties of shrinkage estimators make them less useful than nonshrinkage estimators for patients making choices in their area of residence.
医院、医保计划和医生的公共质量报告正被用于提高医疗体系的效率和质量。收缩估计量因其能为医疗服务提供者提供更保守和稳定的质量排名,而优于传统的非收缩估计量,被提议作为这些报告中使用的优质度量指标。从基于公开提供的信息选择当地医疗服务提供者的患者角度出发,我们研究了收缩估计量和非收缩估计量的优缺点,并对比了它们所提供的信息。我们证明了收缩估计量的 2 个特性使得它们对于在居住地做出选择的患者来说不如非收缩估计量有用。