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When you need treatment, we all want to know who's the best person and which is the best place to go? But medical report cards need revision if they're to work as intended. When you need treatment, we all want to know who's the best person and which is the best place to go? If you've an ingrown toenail it probably doesn't matter, but if it's a major procedure you're facing, it does. Why shouldn't we have access to information that'd help our decisions? There's been an unsuccessful attempt to rate hospitals in Britain and authorities there are having another go. The United States has a lot of experience mainly in limited areas such as coronary artery bypass grafting to replace blocked arteries in the heart. A recent review of the American experience has some salutary conclusions though. It seems that consumers by and large don't use the available information on surgeons and hospitals to make their choice about where to go. They tend to take the recommendation of their referring doctor but they don't look at the performance data either very much. Even Bill Clinton was sent to a low-performing hospital for his heart bypass. The other troubling issue is that surgeons and hospitals seem to 'game play' and select the safest patients. There are indications that Blacks and Hispanics for example are missing out. So medical report cards need revision if they're to work as intended.
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