FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 355:1847-1849 November 2, 2006 Number 18 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

The debate about public report cards for physicians and hospitals never seems to end.¹ Some praise report cards for their role in improving the quality of care, patient safety, and the choices of patients, referring physicians, and organizations that purchase health care. Others argue that such reports can have negative consequences — for example, if physicians or hospitals, in order to protect their rankings, avoid performing surgery on severely ill patients for whom surgical treatment might otherwise be recommended. Nonetheless, more and more data are being collected and released, although policies regarding the public availability of information vary widely. Thirty-seven . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Steinbrook (rsteinbrook@attglobal.net) is a national correspondent for the Journal.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Tu, J. V., Donovan, L. R., Lee, D. S., Wang, J. T., Austin, P. C., Alter, D. A., Ko, D. T. (2009). Effectiveness of Public Report Cards for Improving the Quality of Cardiac Care: The EFFECT Study: A Randomized Trial. JAMA 302: 2330-2337 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Neuss, M. N. (2009). The Truth, the Whole Truth, and the Medical Record. J Oncol Pract 5: 175-176 [Full Text]  
• Leas, B. F., Goldfarb, N. I., Browne, R. C., Keroack, M., Nash, D. B. (2009). Ambulatory Quality Improvement in Academic Medical Centers: A Changing Landscape. American Journal of Medical Quality 24: 287-294 [Abstract]  
• Busse, R., Nimptsch, U., Mansky, T. (2009). Measuring, Monitoring, And Managing Quality In Germany's Hospitals. Health Aff (Millwood) 28: w294-w304 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Slater, J. P., Guarino, T., Stack, J., Vinod, K., Bustami, R. T., Brown, J. M. III, Rodriguez, A. L., Magovern, C. J., Zaubler, T., Freundlich, K., Parr, G. V.S. (2009). Cerebral Oxygen Desaturation Predicts Cognitive Decline and Longer Hospital Stay After Cardiac Surgery. Ann. Thorac. Surg. 87: 36-45 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kelly, A., Thompson, J. P., Tuttle, D., Benesch, C., Holloway, R. G. (2008). Public Reporting of Quality Data for Stroke: Is It Measuring Quality?. Stroke 39: 3367-3371 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Culler, S. D., Simon, A. W., Brown, P. P., Kugelmass, A. D., Reynolds, M. R., Rask, K. J. (2008). Sex Differences in Hospital Risk-Adjusted Mortality Rates for Medicare Beneficiaries Undergoing CABG Surgery. Arch Intern Med 168: 2317-2322 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ettinger, W. H., Hylka, S. M., Phillips, R. A., Harrison, L. H. Jr, Cyr, J. A., Sussman, A. J. (2008). When Things Go Wrong: The Impact of Being a Statistical Outlier in Publicly Reported Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Mortality Data. American Journal of Medical Quality 23: 90-95 [Abstract]