Informed consumers are called vital to an improved health-care system

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret Morning News
Published: Friday, Nov. 17, 2006 9:45 p.m. MST
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Health industry experts say having informed consumers would go a long way toward improving the health-care system and keeping prices down.

It's all part of "transparency," where consumers — in the case of health care, patients — can look at quality and price indicators and make decisions that help keep costs down while reducing errors. But traditionally, "patients have had a difficult time being good consumers," said John Hanshaw, chairman of the Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association. One reason, he said, is that it's hard to get the "concept of value" in health care if you can't get information about quality and cost.

Utah consumers can now visit two Web sites, unveiled this week, to find hospital data with an eye toward knowing the average price for specific procedures at the state's different hospitals and how they do in terms of the quality benchmarks that affect outcomes.

Utah PricePoint, www.utpricepoint.org, lets would-be patients access basic information about the cost of hospitalization for different procedures at any hospital in Utah. It also says how long, on average, someone could expect to be in the hospital.

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Utah CheckPoint, www.utcheckpoint.org, looks at quality and error-prevention data in the areas of heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia. The core of the site is "evidence-based care," which says that certain things should be done as a best practice when treating specific conditions. CheckPoint looks at six measures for heart attack, four for congestive heart failure and four for pneumonia, providing the information for the past four quarters on how each hospital is doing in that area. Hospitals are scored, but only if they have enough cases of a condition for a valid measurement.

The site also shows how a hospital compares to the national and state averages.

State health department director Dr. David N. Sundwall hails the Web sites as part of Utah's "long and proud tradition" of being "data nerds." Utahns have long appreciated the value of good data and collected it, he said.

The effort to make more information available electronically has been ongoing, but recently President Bush signed an executive order to promote transparency, Sundwall said. States are following his mandate for consumer-friendly information, Sundwall said.

The sites, which are also accessible through the Utah Department of Health Web site, www.health.utah.gov/myhealthcare/ are now available. Over time more information will be added.

The online information is based on voluntary reporting by the hospitals, said Joseph M. Krella, UHA president and CEO. "This is just a first step but an important first step," he said.

In 2007, plans call for adding measures including patient experience at the hospital, surgery measures and more, according to Marc Bennett, HealthInsight president and CEO, who said participation is only part of a larger effort by Utah hospitals to improve quality and transparency.

The Web sites are sponsored by the association, the state health department and HealthInsight.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com

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