Hospital ratings on publicly available resources could be improved by allowing patients to prioritize their needs and preferences, according to a recent analysis by the RAND Corporation, a public-private think tank based in California.
Individual patients may have different priorities when assessing their patient experience and outcomes, and that should be reflected in the hospital ratings, the analysts suggest.
The analysis appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, where the authors note, “As currently constructed, the weighting systems that underlie overall hospital performance ratings are expressions of the values, preferences, and tastes of their creators. Why not ask patients what’s important to them instead?”
The authors created a new tool called the Personalized Hospital Performance Report Card that incorporates these varying priorities.
The report can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/2MHeI07.
