Related Resources on Healthcare Quality Reporting

From AHRQ

Public Reporting of Cost Measures in Health—This technical brief documents current practices for public reporting Web sites that include measures of costs of healthcare providers and assesses if these practices are consumer-centered.

Model Public Report Elements: A Sampler—This guide provides an illustrative menu of public report elements from health care provider performance reports from around the country. The examples highlighted in the Sampler span five core Web pages that constitute a public report and are present on nearly all public reporting Web sites. Additional examples illustrate functional possibilities of Web sites and demonstrate how to facilitate use by consumers and how to engage consumers in their care.

The Community Quality Collaborative Leader's Guide to Engaging Consumer Advocates—This guide is a resource for organizations interested in partnering with consumer advocates in their communities to produce and promote consumer reports on quality.

Reports on Best Practices in Public Reporting—These three reports offered guidance to AHRQ's Chartered Value Exchanges on communicating performance data to consumers:

• How to Effectively Present Health Care Performance Data to Consumers
• Maximizing Consumer Understanding of Public Comparative Quality Reports: Effective Use of Explanatory Information
• How to Maximize Public Awareness and Use of Comparative Quality Reports Through Effective Promotion and Dissemination Strategies

From Other Organizations

Getting Tools Used—This report provides insights and lessons on the development and dissemination of tools that support people in making decisions about their healthcare. Source: Center for Advancing Health. (A summary is available from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.)

The Informed Patient Institute (IPI)—IPI is a nonprofit that works to improve the quality of care by helping the public make more informed decisions about their healthcare. From 2008–2018, IPI maintained a website for consumers that graded hundreds of online report cards based on their content, timeliness, presentation, ease of use, and decision support. As of 2019, IPI no longer updates the evaluations, reviews, and ratings; however, previous assessments remain available. 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Publications and Research—RWJF carries out research and publishes articles, issues briefs, and reports on several health care quality and public reporting issues. Browse RWJF's published materials on quality reporting and related issues.