Public reporting of provider performance at a crossroads in the United States: summary of current barriers and recommendations on how to move forward

Abstract

Twenty-seven years after the first public release by the U.S. government of data on the quality of hospital care, public reporting for consumers has expanded substantially. Despite the growth in public reporting activities, there is limited evidence of their use by consumers in ways that significantly affect health care delivery. Support for public reporting continues, in part, because of the face value of transparency. The limited impact of reporting efforts is plausibly due to flaws in the content, design, and implementation of existing public reports rather than inherent limitations of reporting. Substantial work is still needed for public reports to achieve their potential for engaging and informing consumers. We present a vision statement and 10 recommendations to achieve this potential.

Keywords: consumer engagement in quality; health care decision making; public reporting; report cards; transparency.