Health Leaders Media Compares Three Hospital Ranking Tools

The tools available to hospitals, medical professionals, and consumers for evaluating health care facilities on quality of care, safety, and other measures is growing. The U.S. government posts data on readmissions, mortality, and other measures on its Hospital Compare site. That data may be used by others to build their own ranking systems. In June, the Leapfrog Group introduced "Hospital Safety Score" which assigns letter grades based on safety metrics. (See materials from NBCH's June 19, 2012 All-Member Call.) In July, Consumer Reports' hospital safety ratings were rolled out.

To see how top hospitals measured up across three ratings systems, Health Leaders Media compares hospital safety scores from the Leapfrog Group and Consumer Reports alongside the overall rankings of U.S. News & World Report's 17 top-rated hospitals. As health care data transparency becomes more and more important for all stakeholders in the market, including regional coalitions, employers, and employees, being able to make the data actionable will be a key component to using it successfully to achieve better population health and lower costs.  Regional coalitions have an important role to play in navigating these different tools and topics to help put useful information into the hands of those who make decisions.