Becker's Hospital Review

CARE DELIVERY 88 what makes a good physician. For busy patients, a good physician may be one with short wait times and flexible sched- ules. For nervous patients, a good physi- cian may be one who is friendly and un- derstanding. Yet for those who prioritize outcomes, the Surgeon Scorecard is an innovative tool to support informed deci- sion-making. Nonetheless, many patients may nev- er seek out this information — they may continue to rely on family, friend and physician referrals to choose surgeons. Even in that case, ProPublica's Mr. Allen remains optimistic. "Let's just say no patient ever looks at it. Well you still have the medical commu- nity looking at it, and surgeons alone are competitive. ey want to be the best, and even if they see they have wide variation, that will motivate them to see how to im- prove," Mr. Allen said. To that point, the Surgeon Scorecard demonstrates just how far healthcare transparency has come. Data was still institutional a couple of years ago. It per- tained to hospitals as organizations, not so much the individual physicians practic- ing inside of them. Two years ago, it was monumental for CMS to add to its Hos- pital Compare website ratings of hospitals based on readmissions and complications following hip and knee replacements. Now, drilling down complications by sur- geon provides an even clearer picture. is increased sense of transparency created by the Surgeon Scorecard, whether patients actually use it or not, engenders account- ability and can be an incredible motivator for improvement on the individual level. To share comments, concerns or advice with ProPublica on the Surgeon Scorecard, contact scorecard@propublica.org. n ONE What's Your Score, Star Rating, Wait Time? 5 Ways Patients Are Finding Out By Emily Rappleye T ransparency is quickly becoming the name of the game in healthcare. As efforts continue to size up and compare physician and hospital perfor- mance, online rating systems multiply. Here are five organizations or groups helping patients detangle the scores of data out there and making pro- viders more accountable for outcomes of care. ProPublica. In addition to its newly released Surgeon Scorecard, this nonprof- it investigative newsroom has launched a number of other efforts to increase transparency in the healthcare space. These include Dollars for Docs, a search- able database based on CMS' Open Payments data that shows how much money physicians have received from pharmaceutical and medical device companies for various services; Prescriber Checkup, an online tool for the public to compare the drug choices of physicians within Medicare Part D; Nursing Home Inspect, a digital guide to the deficiencies and penalties faced by nursing homes across the country; and Dialysis Facility Tracker, a site for patients to compare the quality of care at individual dialysis clinics. Yelp. The popular consumer review site teamed up with ProPublica earlier this year to supplement its reviews with information from the newsroom's interactive databases. Yelp users can still see the candid anecdotal reviews authored by other users, but now in the context of cold, hard facts gleaned from CMS data of 4,600 hospitals, 15,000 nursing homes and 6,300 dialysis centers. Data is updat- ed quarterly. It's located on the righthand side of each hospital's Yelp page. Hospital-based reviews. This August, Pittsburgh-based UPMC, Great Neck, N.Y.- based North Shore-LIJ Health System and San Diego-based Scripps Health joined the ranks of seven other health systems in posting patient satisfaction surveys and/or star ratings of their physicians online. UPMC, in particular, provides entire- ly candid and (mostly) uncensored reviews of its providers, save any with profanity or secure information. Other health systems with similar initiatives include Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health Care, which says it was the first to pub- lish online ratings, and Cleveland Clinic. Consumer Reports. In addition to an arsenal of resources for choosing a physi- cian — including ratings of California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin providers; ratings of heart bypass surgeons; and a panel of medical advisers — Consumer Reports published infection rates of more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals this summer. Their hospital ratings show patient safety scores, patient experience, patient outcomes and other hospital metrics. The ratings attempt to group and summarize a number of different public data sets, which include data on CMS' Hospital Compare site and other state-based websites. CMS' star ratings. This April, CMS added a new feature to its Hospital Compare website: star ratings. The five-star rating system is based on hospital HCAHPS scores and is meant to make data on Hospital Compare more palatable for con- sumers and encourage improvement among providers. More than 3,500 hospi- tals with sufficient data now have 12 star ratings — a Summary Star Rating and 11 sub-ratings on publically reported HCAHPS measures. n TWO THREE FOUR FIVE

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