Public release of hospital quality data for referral practices in Germany: results from a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Martin Emmert (), Nina Meszmer (), Lisa Jablonski (), Lena Zinth (), Oliver Schöffski () and Fatemeh Taheri-Zadeh ()
Additional contact information
Martin Emmert: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Nina Meszmer: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Lisa Jablonski: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Lena Zinth: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Oliver Schöffski: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Fatemeh Taheri-Zadeh: University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Health Economics Review, 2017, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Objective To evaluate the impact of different dissemination channels on the awareness and usage of hospital performance reports among referring physicians, as well as the usefulness of such reports from the referring physicians’ perspective. Data sources/Study setting Primary data collected from a survey with 277 referring physicians (response rate = 26.2%) in Nuremberg, Germany (03–06/2016). Study design Cluster-randomised controlled trial at the practice level. Physician practices were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) physicians in the control arm could become aware of the performance reports via mass media channels (Mass Media, n MM pr $$ {n}_{MM}^{pr} $$ =132, n MM ph $$ {n}_{MM}^{ph} $$ =147); (2) physicians in the intervention arm also received a printed version of the report via mail (Mass and Special Media, n MSM pr $$ {n}_{MSM}^{pr} $$ =117; n MSM ph $$ {n}_{MSM}^{ph} $$ =130). Principal findings Overall, 68% of respondents recalled hospital performance reports and 21% used them for referral decisions. Physicians from the Mass and Special Media group were more likely to be aware of the performance reports (OR 4.16; 95% CI 2.16–8.00, p .05). On a 1 (very good) to 6 (insufficient) scale, the usefulness of the performance reports was rated 3.67 (±1.40). Aggregated presentation formats were rated more helpful than detailed hospital quality information. Conclusions Hospital quality reports have limited impact on referral practices. To increase the latter, concerns raised by referring physicians must be given more weight. Those principally refer to the underlying data, the design of the reports, and the lack of important information.

Keywords: Public reporting; Hospital quality; Patient referral; Patient counselling; Public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-017-0171-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:7:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-017-0171-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/13561

DOI: 10.1186/s13561-017-0171-5

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics Review is currently edited by J. Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg

More articles in Health Economics Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().