State To Issue Long-Awaited Report Cards On Hospitals

A Web site tracking surgical procedures and other treatments at hospitals across New York will be launched next month by the state Health Department, almost a decade after a law was passed requiring the state to do so.

Some of the measures tracked will include treatment of heart attacks and pneumonia and the prevention of surgical infections, said Health Department spokesman Rob Kenny.
Kenny declined to elaborate about the site, which has been in the works for more than a year, until its launch is finalized and officially announced early next month.

The Web site is in response to a 1996 law that required the state to issue report cards tracking hospitals procedures. Kenny said the delay was partly because such medical reports are complex and must take into account various factors.

"They've had 10 years to work on it, so it'll be interesting to see how they approach it. We're waiting with bated breath," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied for the law a decade ago.

The department now only tracks three types of common cardiac procedures.
Citing studies that show public scrutiny improves the quality of care, critics have long said the Health Department should expand its reporting of hospital procedures.
A report card released by the Health Department this year showed that in 2003, the mortality rate for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery was 1.61 percent, compared to 3.52 percent in 1989.

Few people are aware of the state report card, however, Horner said.
"It's a buried treasure," he said.

Additionally, the reports are based on information that is usually at least two years old, he said.
News of the department's Web site launch comes just a week after an independent group health care plans and providers issued a report card on 28 measures and procedures in hospitals statewide.

The Niagara Health Quality Coalition tracked 28 procedures and treatments in its third annual report card.
A single comprehensive report would make it easiest for consumers, said Matt Cox, spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents about 500 health care facilities statewide.
Before seeing the state's Web site, however, Cox declined to say which site would be more useful to consumers.

"If they're just going to duplicate what we have, it's probably not that helpful," said Bruce Boissonnault, president of NHQC.
Horner, meanwhile, pointed out the state, unlike NHQC, can mandate that providers alert consumers to the report cards, whether by requiring them to tell patrons or by sending out notifications through voter information forms or DMV mailings.
"It's better for the government to do it because they have the regulatory clout," he said. "It's good that they're finally getting something out the door."

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