Physician report cards are used in many hospitals and other health providing institutions and they mainly aid in the advancement of the general hospital care through the provision of quality health information to people seeking treatment and also the general population. Hospital report cards not only aim at aiding patients and the general public seeking health care in making informed choices regarding health care and, but also aids hospitals and other health care providers improve on service delivery and enhance their performance through openness and taking responsibility (Harry & Kristina, 2010).
Recent studies on hospital report cards have shown that the information provided by physicians in these report cards is enough to enable a patient make an informed choice regarding health care. This information provides patients with enough details as a basis of comparing health services and other delivery systems between hospitals. In addition, a patient is allowed to discuss issues of health care with the physician, nurse, or a family member inorder to make an informed decision (Harry & Kristina, 2010). According to Kaplan & Norton (2000), a hospital report card provides information on the safety of patients and the hospital staff, and also provides information on the availability and validity of patient's medical insurance cover using death rates, unfavorable conditions in the medical facility and available medical services as indicators.
Henry (2007), states that all data in a hospital report card is collected within a span of thirty days. For instance, a hospital report card shows all cases of patients readmitted in a particular medical facility within thirty days after initial discharge mainly in patients admitted as a result of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. All deaths reported in the medical facility within a span of thirty days from all causes in patients with pneumonia, heart attack, and heart
failure is also included in the report card. Other information presented in the hospital report card include medical care quality indicators especially those associated with high mortality rates as a result of poor quality care, patient safety information, patient satisfaction data, number of available inpatients and the length of hospitalization of each patient, and health care charges.
It is important for patients and other people seeking medical care to identify an accredited medical facility in a bid to get quality health care and value for money. The accreditation information and other relevant information on accreditation such as the accrediting institution are detailed in a hospital's report card. Accreditation is a process of external quality review used by an accrediting organization to scrutinize programs in an institution for quality assurance and quality improvement. When an institution accepts to be accredited by a recognized organization, it has an obligation to abide with the rules and standards regarding quality set by the accreditation institution. The accredited institution also agrees to periodically submit to accreditation renewal review. Accreditation information is important as it helps patients in identifying the best medical facility for health care hence making an educated and informed choice (Wachter, 2007).
Medical decisions in regard to physician's report cards
A physician report card is not balanced and fair to all medical institutions and to patients. Most physicians use medical data in designing report cards, which is not, a gold standard to be used by patients in identifying the best medical facility for quality medical care. Some hospitals and other health care providers are not accredited as accreditation is a voluntary process. In most cases, these unaccredited institutions have the capacity and the ability to offer quality medical treatment to patients. There are many accrediting institutions and some of the standards may vary
between these institutions, and also some accrediting institutions are highly valued by consumers than others. This gives an unfair advantage to the accredited hospitals and medical facilities over those not accredited as all accreditation information is detailed in the report card. Consumers tend to choose the accredited hospitals and medical facilities over those not accredited (Harry & Kristina, 2010).
Comparing hospitals using mortality rates detailed in report cards is not fair and balanced to some medical institutions. Report cards focus on conditions such heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia. Mortality rates may vary between populations as some have higher risks of infections while others have lower risks of infection. For instance, the rich and affluent have a higher risk of heart diseases than the poor due to lifestyle issues. Some of the deaths may be as a result of underlying medical conditions due to infections hence giving hospitals and medical facilities in low risk regions an unfair advantage (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).
In some cases especially when a patient is not informed enough or is illiterate, these report cards are not used in making informed decisions on the kind of quality medical care or on the choice of the medical facility to seek medical attention. Most of these patients rely on the information and decisions made by their personal doctors on modes of treatment and the choice of medical facility, hence they do not consider issues such as mortality rates and patient safety (Wachter, 2007).
Some information in the physician report cards is collected from staff members instead of collecting it from the patients and other people seeking medical care hence the information given on the quality of treatment may be exaggerated. Some cases in medical treatment which should be detailed in the report cards are not documented properly in many hospitals and therefore may
not be properly represented in the report card. In most cases, the number of patients covered by medical insurance may vary between hospitals and hence data in the physician's report cards may not be statistically correct (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).
Recent studies have shown that evaluation of the quality of medical care physician's performance in many hospitals and other medical facilities is through black boxes which are located at various positions in the hospital. In some cases, the information in these black boxes may not be valid and hence not fair to some hospitals and medical facilities. Report cards use a small fraction of indicators of presentation and hence in many cases the results may be skewed. This means that, a hospital or a medical facility scoring highly does not necessarily mean the facility provides quality medical care. Some measures of validity are dependent on the willingness of the patients to participate in the evaluation process hence physician's report cards are not fair and balanced (Harry & Kristina, 2010).
Conclusion
Many patients and other people seeking medical treatment are increasingly relying on physicians' report cards to seek quality medical care in hospitals and in choosing between medical facilities. Hospitals and other medical facilities also use report cards as a basis for improvement as they help medical practitioners identify areas needing improvement. Report cards are important as they aid in the improvement of services, in a hospital or a medical facility, in that medical practitioners in medical institutions performing below average are able to go back to the drawing board and devise ways and strategies to improve service delivery and also the quality of health care provided. Report cards empowers the consumers with reliable information which they can use in identifying the hospital to go for medical treatment and also in making an informed decision in medical emergencies such as when a surgery is inevitable (Harry & Kristina, 2010).
