State to Publish Annual Reports on Acute-Care Facilities

In an attempt to prod lackluster hospitals to improve, California health officials will soon begin publishing yearly reports that will rank death rates and other patient outcomes at 528 acute-care health facilities statewide.

The program, signed into law by Gov. Pete Wilson earlier this week, is intended to provide health-care consumers with a reliable gauge of hospitals’ quality and effectiveness in order to make educated choices about where to turn for services.

“While we’re not looking to scare people away from one hospital to the next, it’s mostly geared toward making sure that hospitals keep their quality up,” said Phil Perry, assistant director of the state’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

The rankings will be based on so-called patient discharge data--patient conditions upon admission, length of stay and how they were when they left. The data will be adjusted to take into account fundamental demographic differences among hospitals’ patient populations.

The first report is due out in July, 1993. Perry said his office will seek widespread publicity for the reports. Hospitals will see the reports in advance and will have an opportunity to comment but not to change the findings, Perry said.

Initially, the data will cover outcomes of three procedures--obstetrics, general medicine and pediatrics. The state intends over time to expand the number of procedures analyzed, and to begin collecting similar data on outpatient clinics.