The federal government is now telling patients whether their local hospitals are doing what they should.
For now, the effort involves three common and deadly afflictions of the elderly - heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia - and asks about lifesaving treatments that everyone agrees should be given but that hospitals and doctors often forget to give.
The expectation, though, is that this is just the beginning; other diseases, other treatments and surgery are next. Within a few years, individual doctors will be rated as well.
Using incentives like bonus pay and deterrents like public humiliation, it is a bold new effort by the federal government, along with organizations of hospitals, doctors, nurses, and health researchers, to push providers to use proven remedies for common ailments.
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The hospital ratings are being done by Medicare and posted on the Internet (www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hospital/).
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But not long ago, only 30 percent of V.A. patients who should get the vaccine received it (the national average is 50 percent). The rude awakening came when the department showed individual teams of doctors and individual clinics and hospitals how often they were vaccinating and how their rates compared with those of other medical teams. "It's pretty revealing to have the data," Dr. Perlin said. "Absent the data, you think you are doing a pretty good job."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/25/health/25medicine.html?ex=1261717200&en=e4a3cf4081b90939&ei=5090&partner=rssuserlandIf the govt actually caught a real systemic problem, great...BUT...Simply because this represents profit for pharma, I'd be interested in seeing some independent "data".
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