Guide to Evaluating Quality
It may be important to you to research hospitals and physicians before you decide where to seek care. Here are several questions that you can ask to help guide your decision.
What are the physician’s credentials?
A good sign of a physician’s competence is whether he or she is board-certified in a specialty. Certification means that the doctor has been trained in a specialty, practiced it for a required amount of time, and has passed challenging examinations.
What is the physician’s level of experience?
In general, the more experience that a physician has in treating a given condition or performing a procedure, the better the outcome for patients. Several studies have found that physicians and hospitals that have done a high volume of a specific procedure have lower mortality rates than those with lower volumes.
What services are available?
Hospitals with a wide range of services are generally better equipped to handle complex medical conditions, as well as complications that may arise during treatment. If the physician overseeing your care needs the advice of a specialist, a consultation from another Hopkins expert can be easily requested and performed. Large, academic medical centers such as Hopkins can also offer you several options for treating a condition at that facility.
What kinds of outcomes does the physician/hospital have?
Several measures can help you gauge the quality and safety of care at a given hospital. You can review mortality rates that show the percentage of patients who have died during their hospital stay. In some cases, you may also be able to review long-term survival rates for groups of patients, such as heart transplant recipients, which look at how long patients live after they are treated for a problem. It’s important to take note of whether the statistics are risk-adjusted, meaning that they take into account factors, such as old age, that can decrease the likelihood of survival.
Does the hospital adhere to “core measures”?
Research has shown that following certain steps, such as giving antibiotics to patients before and after surgery, will improve patient outcomes. Several groups, including the Maryland Hospital Association, track hospitals’ adherence to these processes, known as core measures.
What do other patients think of the hospital?
Most large hospitals ask past patients to rate their stays and to say whether they would recommend the hospital to someone else. These patient satisfaction measures are often based on subjective aspects of patients’ experiences, such as the politeness of staff and whether caregivers answered their questions, as well as on the quality of treatments they receive.
