Washington unveils hospital transparency site
The new website is organized by type of care, such as surgery, mother and baby, and infections, and compares hospital quality scores in the state.
Photo from Washington State Hospital Association.
The Washington State Hospital Association this week launched a transparency website, giving the public access to information and ratings on the services it provides, according to Paul Levy, who featured the site in his blog “Not Running a Hospital.”
Levy, a former hospital CEO and advocate for patient-driven care, lauded the new website and the organization, which he named a leader in healthcare transparency.
The new website is organized by type of care, such as surgery, mother and baby, and infections, and compares hospital quality scores in the state.
According to Beth Zborowski of the Washington State Hospital Association, who shared the info with Levy, in the past someone going in for surgery might only look at the specific measures related to their type of surgery, but may not think to look at other relevant or overall quality indicators, such as Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI).
“We've included data along with a visual indicator highlighting the ‘opportunity gap’ between performance and the goal for each metric,” Zborowski said. “Another new addition is the inclusion of tips for patients when they're going to the hospital. In feedback from consumers so far, this visualization takes a little trying to get, but they appreciate having both the number and some kind of visual indication of performance. We're working on a clearer widget for the next version of the site.”
Zborowski said the work would not stop there.
"We’ve seen that making this information easily available is also really helpful for hospitals and health systems. It’s motivating to make improvements and it also helps organizations identify who is doing really well so they can learn from their strategies," she said.
