HealthGrades partners with Google for consumers
Health Grades Inc., the Golden, CO-based health care ratings company, is partnering with Google to "help individuals find the best health care providers." HealthGrades will make independent information on doctors and hospitals, based on quality and cost, accessible via Google Health — a new product that is being tested in a pilot with the Cleveland Clinic. (Look for an article on the Cleveland Clinic initiative in the May issue of Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvements.)
"HealthGrades' goal is to guide Americans to better health care," said Kerry Hicks, HealthGrades' CEO, in a prepared statement. "For researching health care, more Americans turn to Google to start their search than any other source, so we are proud to be providing Google users with independent, objective quality ratings and cost information so that they can choose the best possible doctor and hospital."
HealthGrades' content on the quality of most of the nation's hospitals and practicing physicians is already appearing in Google Maps, including expanded profiles of health care providers, with more content to be added in the months to come.
HealthGrades independently rates the quality of care at each of the nation's nearly 5,000 nonmilitary hospitals, using star ratings to reflect patient outcomes for procedures and treatments ranging from bypass surgery to total knee replacement. HealthGrades also rates the quality of care at virtually every nursing home and home health agency in the country.
HealthGrades also maintains cost and quality reports for 700,000 physicians, nearly every practicing physician in the country. Reports include patient-satisfaction ratings, detailed education and training information, disciplinary action information, malpractice judgments (in 15 states), board certification, affiliated hospital quality ratings, comparisons to other physicians, specialty and national averages comparisons, and more.
PHCQA launches new quality web site
A new web site has been launched that for the first time compiles outcome and quality data for Pennsylvania's acute care hospitals for the general public.
The site — www.phcqa.org — is the work of the Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance (PHCQA), an association of the Commonwealth's hospitals, Blue Cross insurers, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, government policy makers, and other organizations concerned with promoting quality and transparency in health care.
"While hospital quality data have become more available on the Internet, consumers are at a disadvantage when they must search out multiple sites, each with its own measurement standards," said Gerald Miller, chairman of the alliance, in a prepared statement. "PHCQA has developed, and is continuing to refine, a consistent and uniform approach that makes it easier for consumers to access, understand, and use the data."
The site was launched with information gathered from the federal Medicare program (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), and The Joint Commission. Visitors to the site are able to search hospital quality measures in four major clinical areas:
- heart attack;
- heart failure;
- pneumonia;
- prevention of health care-associated infections.
These clinical areas represent some of the most common conditions treated in hospitals — and some of the most costly.
"These areas are just the beginning, "Miller emphasized. "We will add more clinical topics and quality measures as they are developed, and will continue to modify the site to make it as useful to consumers as possible. By sharing these data, we can provide objective quality information, while at the same time encouraging best practices that improve the performance of hospitals statewide."
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