Health care consumers want to receive as much valid information as they can about the care they need and about the institutions providing that care. Gathering information also is important to hospitals to help them improve.

Hospitals undergo numerous regulatory reviews and publicly report measures on the quality of care. They partner with consumer advocacy groups and the government to make what they do accessible to the public and clear to understand.

But remember: because medicine is so complex, it makes sense that the data relating to it is complicated and multifaceted. Determining what data to gather and how to use it effectively is a demanding process.

Should insurance companies collect the data? Employers? National magazines? Government agencies? Hospitals themselves?

Patients and their families can use the Patients First website to get a clearer picture of the care being provided to them when they’re in the hospital. By using this site, you can learn about treatments that are known to get the best results for most adult patients.  Plus you can see how every hospital in the state staffs each one of their units. (See the “Staffing Plans” tab at the top of this page.)

This quality information not only helps patients and their families make informed decisions about their health care, but also provides hospitals with information to improve the quality of health care they offer.

By using this site, patients can see how each hospital in Massachusetts meets agreed-upon national guidelines for 26 different measures relating to:

The site allows patients to track a particular hospital’s efforts to meet the measure standards, and allows them to see how the hospital compares to “peer” hospitals of the same size.

It’s important to note that Massachusetts hospitals – considered among the best in the world – are voluntarily presenting this information and, in fact, are leading the nation in their approach to a statewide voluntary program of transparency and accountability. While all hospitals nationwide are participating in the “Hospital Compare” posting of data, no other state is collecting and posting falls and falls with injury data voluntarily.

Visit these other important links:

• The Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors identifies the best ways to reduce errors in hospitals and then shares these “best practice” strategies with caregivers. www.macoalition.org
• The Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) develops, collects, and reports on measures relating to the quality of care. This helps hospitals, doctors, and other clinicians improve care and gives consumers more information for their medical decisions. See MHQP';s 2004 Physician Network Quality Report below. www.mhqp.org
• Joint Commission, the nation’s principle standards-setting and accrediting body. Every acute care hospital in Massachusetts undergoes a rigorous JC evaluation. Its Quality Check page allows consumers to see how a hospital measures up to JC's standards. Visit: www.qualitycheck.org.
• Board of Registration in Medicine has a website that contains profiles of all Bay State doctors, including their education, training, experience, and any actions the Board has taken. Visit: www.massmedboard.org.
• Department of Public Health Cardiac Surgery Study details hospital-specific standardized mortality rates associated with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgeries. Consumers can access hospital-specific data on this life-saving surgery. Visit: www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/massdac/reports.

Additional Resources:

• The Commonwealth Fund has created the “Why Not the Best?” website to help providers and others find and compare hospitals, and learn about ways to improve quality as well as patients' experience with care.
• The physician members of the Massachusetts Medical Society share a common goal - to make a difference in the lives of our patients and in the practice of medicine. Visit: www.massmed.org
• Masspro is one of the leading performance improvement organizations in the United States, dedicated to advancing healthcare quality. Visit: www.masspro.org
• The American Hospital Association provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. Visit: www.aha.org
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's guide presents information and lists resources to help you get better quality health care. Visit: www.ahcpr.gov/consumer/qntlite/
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to achieving true improvements in people's health. www.cdc.gov.
• The Partnership for Healthcare Excellence is dedicated to helping you – as a patient and a consumer – get the high quality care you and your family deserve. Visit: www.partnershipforhealthcare.org
• The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization leading the improvement of health care throughout the world. IHI was founded in 1991 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Visit: www.ihi.org

Remember: Consult as many sources as you can, including your doctor, as well as your local hospital.

Also, be aware that for some newer measures the initial data sample may be very small. So if a hospital reports, say, one incident among just 4 patients, it looks as though that incident may occur 25% of the time at that hospital. But one incident among a sample containing 500 patients means the incident occurs only 0.002% of the time. So use this data wisely!

Nonetheless, it is possible that reporting errors have occurred or that reporting errors were not identified by a hospital until after the database was closed to reporting to permit preparation of the website and related analyses. Readers should review the hospital comments that accompany the data and that are accessible through a link on their data page to see if the hospital has identified any data accuracy issues.

As hospitals continue to gain experience with collection and reporting of this data, the accuracy and reliability of the data will continually improve. Any corrections of data that are reported to us for the period covered in the data display will be corrected when that data is combined with data for subsequent periods and updated on the website.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives facilitated the transmission and display of hospital reported data. Neither organization is responsible for any error in the data submitted..