Damberg Cheryl L, Berry Sandra H, Hackbarth Nicole Schmidt
Rand Health Q. 2013 Mar 1;3(1):2. eCollection 2013 Spring.
To advance consideration of whether California should collect and release physician-identified data, RAND conducted a study to explore issues associated with requiring the inclusion of physician identifiers in the California hospital discharge data set and the potential use of physician-identified data by the state and/or release to others. RAND researchers conducted interviews with a broad set of California stakeholders, reviewed the legal and regulatory authority of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to collect and release physician identifiers, and interviewed representatives from other states to understand any issues encountered by the states in their collection and use of physician-identified data. The authors found that physician-identified data could be useful to a variety of stakeholders. Of the 48 states that have hospital discharge reporting programs, all but California collect physician identifiers and do so without substantial burden to hospitals. States vary in their release policies, but those who do release the data have not reported problems. California stakeholders expressed concerns related to who would have access to the data, how the data would be analyzed, and how consumers would interpret the information, which should be carefully considered in efforts to advance the collection of physician identifiers in the California hospital discharge data.
为推动对加利福尼亚州是否应收集并公布医生识别数据的考量，兰德公司开展了一项研究，以探讨与要求在加利福尼亚州医院出院数据集里纳入医生标识符以及该州对医生识别数据的潜在使用和/或向其他方公布相关的问题。兰德公司的研究人员与加利福尼亚州众多利益相关者进行了访谈，审查了全州卫生规划与发展办公室收集和公布医生标识符的法律和监管权限，并采访了其他州的代表，以了解这些州在收集和使用医生识别数据时遇到的任何问题。作者发现，医生识别数据可能对各类利益相关者有用。在48个设有医院出院报告项目的州中，除加利福尼亚州外，其他州均收集医生标识符，且对医院没有造成实质性负担。各州的公布政策各不相同，但公布数据的州并未报告出现问题。加利福尼亚州的利益相关者对谁将能够获取这些数据、数据将如何进行分析以及消费者将如何解读这些信息表达了担忧，在推动收集加利福尼亚州医院出院数据中的医生标识符时应仔细考虑这些问题。
