Informed decisions lead to quality care
A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine estimates that as many as 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lapses in patient safety. Often, the lapses in safety are simple and avoidable, and are due to weaknesses in the health care system, such as lack of timely access to medical records or medication histories. No single part of the health care system can achieve change by itself. Collaboration is essential. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is committed to working collaboratively with every part of the health care system to improve health care quality. Everyone in the health care system — patients, hospitals, health plans, and physicians — has a role to play in increasing overall patient safety. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has developed this list of the five most important things patients can do to contribute to their own good health:
- Understand and ask questions if anything is unclear
- Keep a list of all medications that you take
- Get the results of any test or procedure that you have had
- Talk to your physician about which hospital is best for your health needs
- Understand and ask questions about your surgery
Many health plans as well as the state and federal governments now offer online tools for consumers to aid them in choosing doctors and hospitals, and even discovering how much certain medical procedures typically cost. Proponents of such tools maintain that providing patients with data about how well hospitals and doctors follow common patient safety procedures, or about the quality of outcomes their patients have after undergoing specific procedures, will allow patients to make informed decisions when choosing where they want to go for medical care. Proponents call this availability of cost and quality information “transparency.” Many argue that transparency helps individual patients find the best quality care for themselves while at the same time motivating health care providers to make the quality of the care they deliver even better and more efficient. Transparency is good for the health care system as a whole.
Most Massachusetts health plans offer online resources that list individual doctors and physician groups that have received care excellence awards; offer cost and quality measurements of hospitals; and provide cost estimates for specific medical procedures and treatments. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts members, for instance, can find this information at www.bluecrossma-takecontrol.com.
The Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services offers a hospital comparison tool at www.mass.gov/healthcareqc. This tool provides cost and quality ratings of treatment of nine specific conditions in hospitals in Massachusetts. These conditions include heart attack, stroke, coronary artery bypass graft, congestive heart failure, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hip fracture, hip replacement, pneumonia, and childbirth.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a similar tool that describes how often hospitals have provided recommended treatments for adults with heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgery. The website is www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
The Leapfrog Group is an organization that surveys hospitals based upon what steps they are taking to reduce preventable medical mistakes. The organization rates hospitals based on that data and makes the rating available at www.leapfroggroup.org.
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