Auburn Memorial Hospital takes great pride in the quality of care it provides and constantly strives to improve the quality for our patients, prevent errors and inconsistencies in medical care and improve patient outcomes. Achieving quality is a never-ending job.

An increasing number of public “report cards” and ratings are available on the Internet, which may help consumers learn how hospitals in their area compare to others. Hospitals are leading the way in being transparent about the quality of care they provide.

However, health care consumers should be aware that not all ratings systems are equally valid. The very important process of selecting a hospital for one's care or the care of a loved one should be based on solid information backed by careful research. AMH encourages patients to talk with their physicians about the variety of factors that can have an impact on where a patient should go for care.

In addition to a doctor's advice, a very good resource is the public Hospital Quality Alliance Web site, www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov, which includes data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers Survey (HCAHPS). AMH voluntarily shares information about our patients' experience of care through this site, which is managed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Since 2005, hospitals (including AMH) have been sharing information about clinical care for specific procedures with consumers.

Within the past month, the Hospital Compare Web site has added patient satisfaction data, based on a random sample of 300 discharged patients treated for a variety of conditions at each hospital surveyed. They were treated between October 2006 and June 2007, and the information will be updated quarterly.

In the Hospital Compare report card on patient satisfaction, Auburn Memorial Hospital surpassed the state average in every category. When compared with nine other hospitals in a five-county area (St. Joseph's, Community General, Crouse, University, Cortland Memorial, Oneida Healthcare, Oswego, Cayuga and Community Memorial Hospital), AMH ranked second in patient care. Only Community Memorial Hospital in Hamilton, a 40-bed facility, had higher grades.

Combining the information on patient satisfaction from HCAHPS with the clinical care information already available will give consumers a broader look at hospital care. In addition, hospitals can use HCAHPS information in their efforts to improve care.

Some health care report cards are based on “administrative data.” Quality indicators based on administrative data have many limitations, including:

• Administrative data are collected primarily for billing purposes. These data do not detail a patient's condition at the time of hospital admission or capture everything that occurs during the hospital stay. This makes meaningful comparisons between patients and hospitals difficult.

• Administrative data do not capture the information needed to account for the different patient populations that different hospitals treat.

• The codes used to distinguish one condition from another are often not specific enough to adequately characterize a patient's condition. This means that a fair comparison between patients and hospitals is difficult.

When using the Internet to research health care information, consumers should also be aware of the age of each study. Some information currently posted on one hospital report card site goes back to 2003. Given the speed of change in health care and particularly in specific hospitals, relying on five-year-old data can be worse than useless.

The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and its hospital members support the development of a single, comprehensive, standardized quality report card. This would have the most value for consumers, patients, and those who provide care. AMH, as a member of HANYS, strongly supports this goal.

Beverly Miller is the director of community relations and the

Hospital Foundation at Auburn Memorial Hospital