Comparative Quality Indicators for Hospital Choice: Do General Practitioners Care?

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Public reporting of healthcare quality indicators is a policy strategy to enhance healthcare efficiency.
• Comparative hospital quality data is increasingly accessible via public services and media.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate general practitioners' (GPs) utilization of publicly available comparative hospital quality indicators.
• To understand GPs' perceptions of the quality and utility of these indicators.

Main Methods:

• A telephone survey was conducted among a random sample of self-employed GPs in private practice in France.
• The survey assessed the use and perception of hospital quality indicators.

Main Results:

• A significant majority of GPs (84.1%-88.5%) reported never using public quality indicators to guide patient hospital selection.
• GPs predominantly rely on traditional information sources for hospital choices.
• Despite limited use for patient choice, many GPs perceive quality indicators as useful for other professional purposes, such as quality improvement.

Conclusions:

• General practitioners demonstrate minimal use of hospital quality indicators for patient consumer choice.
• GPs perceive value in quality indicators for professional applications, particularly for enhancing the quality of care.
• The findings suggest a disconnect between the intended consumer-choice paradigm of public reporting and the actual professional utility perceived by GPs.