With transparency in hospital quality ratings an increasingly important issue in the era of consumer driven care, companies which produce hospital ratings are coming under increasing scrutiny. Do the awards handed out by companies like HealthGrades and JD Power actually mean anything? Are attitudes changing? The South Florida Business Journal looks at the controversy surrounding the awards, which some hospitals use to market their services. One hospital executive who decided against participating in the HealthGrades survey said, "We decided the ethics weren't there."
- see this story from the South Florida Business Journal
PLUS: The King's Fund and New York University have created a patient risk assessment tool designed to help hospitals in the UK target patients who are "likely to need re-hospitalization." Website