Profession
Consumer Reports starts hospital ratings site
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 17, 2009
Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, is taking the federal government's survey data on more than 1 million patients' hospital experiences and presenting it in an easier format for consumers.
The ratings also incorporate data from the 2008 Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care showing how aggressively hospitals treat Medicare patients with severe chronic illnesses in the last two years of life. The ratings are available for a $4.95 monthly fee at the Consumer Reports Web site (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/08/17/prbf0817.htm.