Hospital report cards get a report card

The Healthcare Association of New York State has released a report card on hospital report cards to evaluate the usefulness of rankings in helping hospitals improve quality, ranking them on a set of conditions developed from material from the National Quality Foundation, according to a story on the Becker's Hospital Review website

The hospital report cards were evaluated on transparent methodology, use of evidence-based measures, measure alignment, appropriate data sources, current data, risk-adjusted data, quality of data, consistency of data and hospital preview. The hospital report cards were awarded between one-half and three stars, the article said.

Three-star report cards included The Joint Commission Quality Check, Department of Health Hospital-Acquired Infection Report, CMS Hospital Compare and DOH Hospital Profile Quality Selection.

U.S. News & World Report was the only card receiving half a star, meaning its rankings either met only one of HANYS's criteria, part of a few criteria or no criteria at all.

Read the report.