Employers, Purchasers Rate Southeast Michigan Hospitals

    DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 5 A group of employers and health
care purchasers today released a new performance report on 42 hospitals in
southeast Michigan, focusing on quality of care and patient satisfaction.
    The report -- Southeast Michigan Hospital Profile: A Consumer Guide --
was sponsored by the Hospital Profiling Project, a consortium that includes
Ford Motor Company, the UAW, General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler, the
Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, MESSA, Detroit Edison and
the State of Michigan.  The consortium represents 860,000 consumers,
accounting for approximately $2.2 billion in health care purchases each year
in southeast Michigan.  Employers will distribute copies to employees and
retirees or direct them to the Internet at http://www.hospitalprofiles.org .
    "An informed consumer is a powerful force to driving improved quality in
the health-care market," stated Dr. Denise Clement, director, Health Care
Quality Assurance, Ford Motor Company.  "We see our employees and retirees
taking the information to their doctors, and using it as a tool to ask
questions."
    The southeast Michigan profile is one of five reports published by the
Hospital Profiling Project.  Reports will be released later this month in
Atlanta, Buffalo, Cleveland and Indianapolis.
    "Very few employers provide this type of information to their employees,
and we're proud to be part of a community effort that both informs patients
and improves care for all," said Dr. Diane Bechel, manager, Consumer Health
Care Initiatives at Ford Motor Company.  "Studies have found that quality
varies from hospital to hospital, and employees can use the information in the
hospital profiling report to make better health-care decisions."
    Hospitals were compared on many issues related to the quality of
in-patient care for both medical and surgical procedures.  Categories studied
included childbirth, heart attack and cardiac angioplasty.  A complete list of
categories can be found in the report.
    Also included is a patient satisfaction section, which shares the results
of a patient survey conducted by the Picker Institute, a leading health care
research firm.  The hospitals' results were compared with survey results
nationally.
    In December 2000, the National Survey on Americans as Health Consumers
released the findings of a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Agency
for Health Care Research and Quality, which emphasized the need for projects
like the Hospital Profiles.  The survey found that of the people asked, 85%
believed that information comparing quality would be helpful to someone making
a decision about a hospital.
    "This is our best collaborative work to date," stated Don Potter,
president of the Southeast Michigan Health and Hospital Council.  "The report
represents countless hours of discussions between employer representatives and
experts on hospital and health-care data and quality, and we can look forward
to continued collaboration in the future."
    The report was created by Market Insights, an industry expert in strategic
data collection and analysis.  The data have been adjusted to account for
varying patient factors, such as age, gender and severity of illness.