Felice Freyer, a medical writer at The Providence (R.I.) Journal and a member of AHCJ’s Right to Know Committee, writes in an article for AHCJ that “In recent years, state and federal agencies have begun yanking data out of filing cabinets and opening their folders to the daylight of cyberspace.”
As Freyer points out, “The Internet offers vast new opportunities to answer every patient’s most pressing question: Am I entrusting my health to people who will take good care of me?”
Web sites that offer hospital quality data not only inform consumers, they prod everyone in health care to do a better job. Much more can and should be done to give the public better access to what the regulators know.
Read more of Freyers article.
Additional Sunshine Week coverage: Online health data varies by state
