Government agencies, news organizations, healthcare accreditation and quality groups are among the many that have started publishing hospital performance measures and report cards in recent years, growing out of the movement for improved quality and patient satisfaction, lower costs, and greater accountability and transparency. The emergence of these reviews has put pressure on hospital leaders to do what’s necessary to improve their scores. But the various reports use significantly different methodologies and have different areas of focus, often producing sharply different ratings for the same hospitals during the same time period. Some hospital leaders say this makes it more difficult to know which areas to prioritize to improve their quality of care and rankings. And it can be confusing for patient to get a sense of the true quality of the organization.
