FACT: The quality of healthcare in this country varies—a lot—according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
What You Can Do About It
- Take control of your health. As a starting point, ask your doctor these three questions and make sure you understand the answers:
- What is wrong with me?
- What do I have to do?
- Why is it important for me to do this?
- If necessary, enlist family members, friends, and/or coworkers to help you get informed about your condition and especially selecting your healthcare providers
- If you (or a loved one) are in the hospital, ask for a social worker or patient advocate. If you are more comfortable talking in a language other than in English, ask for a translator. Most hospitals and health plans will provide these services
- Create your own Personal Health Record with family/personal health history, medications/dosage, blood type, etc.
Resource for Creating a Personal Health Record (PHR)
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a non-profit professional association dedicated to the effective management of personal health information needed to deliver quality healthcare to the public.
FACT: WHO you receive your treatment from determines the quality of care you receive.
What You Can Do About It
Because there is no complete database of information on how well individual physicians perform, there is really not one best way to find the right doctor for you…the best approach is to use several approaches:
- Talk with family, friends, and social and business contacts who may have had a similar health condition
- Network to get names from other doctors, nurses and allied health professionals
- Check Best Doctors lists for your city or nearby metropolitan area
- Double and triple check recommendations to assess and confirm a physician’s credentials:
- Is he/she board certified, i.e., completed advanced study and passed a rigorous test in his or her specialty? (use links below to find information about an individual physician)
- Does he/she have admitting privileges at an accredited hospital?
- Has she/he published articles or participated in clinical trials related to your disease or condition? This may be important if you have a rare disease or condition
- Does she/he have a good reputation among peers?
- Visit several doctors before deciding
- Ask about level of experience in treating your condition—this is very important and you are entitled to know this—especially if it involves new technology or surgical procedures
- Observe how the office staff treats you and how the office is managed
- Ask if the office is equipped with electronic medical records (EMRs) and if the physician uses e-mail with patients. EMRs have been shown to reduce medical errors
- Look for consistency in what you read, hear, feel
Resources
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality publication Your Guide to Choosing Quality Healthcare is available at no cost by calling 1-800-358-9295 or by visiting their website at www.ahrq.org
Your State Department of Health or State Medical Board is responsible for investigating complaints about physicians and monitors physicians who have been placed on probation. A full listing of US state and local health departments can be found at:
FACT: WHERE you receive treatment determines the quality of care you receive.
What You Can Do About It
- Check that the hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
- Consult your State Health Department to make sure hospital is highly rated, in general, and specifically for treating your condition. Look for high volume, i.e., large numbers of patients with your condition have been successfully treated
- Consult U.S. News & World Report annual issue on Best Hospitals
Resources for Learning About a Hospital and/or Health Plan
Joint Commission provides information about how well hospitals perform procedures and surgeries at http://www.QualityCheck.Org/consumer/searchQCR.aspx
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality publication Your Guide to Choosing Quality Healthcare is available at no cost by calling 1-800-358-9295 or by visiting their website at www.ahrq.org
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (www.ncqa.org) publishes report cards with more than 50 criteria for hundreds of health plans. Report cards are available on line or by calling 1-800-839-6487
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a website called Hospital Compare (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov) with information about how well hospitals care for adult patients. This year, in order to qualify for full Medicare reimbursement, hospitals will be required by the federal government to participate in a national patient satisfaction survey program. Results will be posted on the hospital compare website.
U.S. News & World Report Annual Best Hospitals and Best Health Plans Lists are available at www.usnews.com/usnews/health/rankings.htm
FACT: WHAT you don’t know can harm you
What You Can Do About It
- Get informed
- Ask questions
- Listen to your body and to your doctor
Resources for Finding Trusted Information
See the full list of top 100 websites at the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association at http://caphis.mlanet.org/consumer/index.html
A sampling:
MedlinePlus
Recommended as the first website any health consumer should visit on the Internet.
MedlinePlus offers over 18,000 links to accurate and current medical information on the Internet that has been evaluated by the National Library of Medicine. It includes drug information, an illustrated medical dictionary, the latest health news, directories of doctors, dentists and hospitals, surgery videos, and interactive health tutorials. Brief information is available in the Medical Encyclopedia with more in depth information in over 750 health topics. The GoLocal initiative adds links to local resources in over 18 states with hospital information available in the other states.
healthfinder
Developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this site links to carefully selected information and Web sites from over 1,500 health-related organizations. There’s a wonderful children’s interface with age-appropriate health information. Their Drug Interaction Checker, Online Checkups, and health newsletters in Spanish and English provide useful additional features.
NOAH: New York Online Access to Health
Bi-lingual in Spanish and English, NOAH provides links to high quality consumer health information that is accurate, timely, relevant and unbiased. Arranged both alphabetically and by body site, it includes a search feature to guide you to a specific topic.
PATIENT ADVOCACY & SUPPORT GROUPS
American Cancer Society
1-800-ACS-2345
National Cancer Institute
1-800-4CANCER
American Diabetes Association
1-800-DIABETES
American Heart Association
1-800-AHA-USA1
American Stroke Association
1-888-4STROKE
American Lung Association
1-800-548-8252
National Aging Services Network
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