Health care ratings are ratings or
evaluation
Evaluation is a
systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative to ...
s of
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health pr ...
. In the United States they have been an increasingly used tool to try to drive accountability among
health care providers
A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (suc ...
and in the context of classic
supply
Supply may refer to:
*The amount of a resource that is available
**Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers
**Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission
*Supply, as in confidenc ...
/
demand
In economics, demand is the quantity of a good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given time. The relationship between price and quantity demand is also called the demand curve. Demand for a specific item ...
view of
Health economics
Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare. Health economics is important in determining how to improv ...
, to help health care consumers make better choices.
[
Reviews in 2008 and 2009 review of research on the effects of health care ratings found that there was evidence that public ratings drove hospitals to improve their performance, but there was limited evidence that they affected how consumers choose health care providers or insurance plans, or that they changed the performance of individual doctors or insurance companies.][DARE summary]
/ref>
In may cases it is difficult to create health care ratings that can meaningfully summarize any individual provider's performance in a way that be compared with others', and data is often lacking with which to generate ratings.
People may have difficulty finding the ratings, especially if they are negative.Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equi ...
, have funded major initiatives that are focused on performance measurement like the Aligning Forces for Quality program.[ ]
See also
* Health system international comparisons
References
{{Health care quality
Health economics
Health care quality
Healthcare reform in the United States
Patient safety
Rating