The New York State Health Accountability Foundation on Thursday posted online a statewide report card that offers consumers county-level information on hospitals and insurance companies, the Albany Times-Union reports.
The hospital information includes data on measures including:
- Use of computers for tracking patient health records;
- Average hospital stays;
- Charges for dozens of procedures;
- Mortality rates; and
- Staffing of intensive care units.
A spokesperson for the Healthcare Association of New York State said that most of the qualitative measures are based on hospital billing information that was provided to the state Department of Health.
Insurance companies are rated on measures, such as whether they advise members to quit smoking or get tested for breast cancer. Some insurers were rated on whether patients received treatment they did not need, the
Times-Union reports.
The foundation has issued similar report cards for the past eight years on insurers, but this is only the second year that the report card was expanded to include hospitals. The foundation is sponsored by IPRO, a not-for-profit health care quality review group, and the New York Business Group on Health (Wechsler,
Albany Times-Union, 9/7).