Transparency of Quality Data in Hospitals

I came across an article in the October 2007 edition of HealthLeaders Magazine on the issues facing hospitals around sharing their quality data:

"Reporting quality scores on certain core measures is common practice for hospitals, but senior leaders across the country are encountering mounting pressure from board members, regulators, competitors and customers to take their data reporting a step further: full transparency. Hospital leaders and quality departments meet regularly to debate the whys and why nots of such disclosure, but few have pulled the trigger. With a small but growing number of hospitals opting to report quality data on their own Web sites, however, that could be changing."

What are your thoughts on how transparent a facility/system needs to be? Can you think of valid reasons why a facility might not want to share its data?

The full article can be found at http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/magazine/viewmagfeature/content/92899.html

Kim

SCHIP and Broader Debate

Thanks to everyone for the comments on the SPH dinner. Many of you brought up the SCHIP veto so I thought we could extend the dialogue using this NTY article that speculates about how the broader debate on healthcare will fare in the election year given the inability to enact something for low income children. The article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/washington/06health.html

Your thoughts?

PS - Did anyone see the SCHIP parody on the Colbert Report the other day that panned back and forth between a group of children and legislators talking about SCHIP - hilarious!