If you understand statistics and possess the intestinal fortitude to examine a ranking methodology, you will recognize that it involves ingredients that have to be recombined, repackaged and renamed. It's messy, like sausage-making. This is not to say that the end product — hospital rankings — are distasteful. Patients deserve valid, transparent and timely information(...)
patient safety indicators
Potential Bias in U.S. News Patient Safety Scores
Posted by | Measurement of Safety and Quality, Preventing Patient HarmIn this post, I present the case that U.S. News & World Report’s patient safety score, a component of its annual Best Hospitals rankings, has a bias against Maryland hospitals. Two editors at U.S. News respond to my position at the bottom of the post. Hospitals can get overwhelmed by the array of ratings, rankings(...)
Why Health Care Performance Measures Need Their Own Grades
Posted by | Measurement of Safety and QualitySome measures of health care quality and patient safety should be taken with a grain of salt. A few need a spoonful. In April, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers published an article examining how well a state of Maryland pay-for-performance program measure for dangerous blood clots identified cases that were potentially preventable. In reviewing(...)