Are public report cards that evaluate individual physicians a good thing?
POINT: Yes. Public reporting on the quality of all health care services is key in the nation’s efforts to develop a value-driven health care system, says Carolyn M. Clancy, a general internist and the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of twelve agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A value-driven system is one in which substantial investments made in health care result in improved outcomes for patients. For such a system to work, patients, providers, policy makers and other stakeholders need reliable, comparable information to make informed decisions. We are seeing escalating health care costs and persistent evidence of a substantial gap between the best possible care and that which is routinely delivered. These observations have helped spur interest in the use of performance measurement to drive clinical improvements and inform patient choices. Although report cards and the performance measures that populate those car
