The Effect of Public Reporting of Acute Myocardial Infarction on the Choice of Hospital

Abstract BackgroundPublic reporting of the quality of care delivered in hospitals is thought to improve patients’ choice and quality of care. When information about hospital rating is available, consumers may choose good-rated hospitals. To investigate the effect of public reporting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) care on the people’s choice of hospitals. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire. The survey questions include the awareness and usage of public reporting, and the impact of the public reporting on the choice of hospitals. The difference in responses before and after acquiring information about public reporting was compared using Wilcoxon Signed Rank test.ResultsThe final survey data set includes 740 respondents after a rigorous validity check (response rate: 66.7%). Before providing information about public reporting of AMI care, 62.8% of respondents selected ‘nearby hospitals’ as the best option for AMI patients, followed by ‘famous hospitals’ (14.4%), ‘usual hospitals’ (10.5%) and ‘hospitals with good rates’ (9.9%). However, after acquiring information about the public reporting of AMI care, 10.3% of respondents changed their original responses to ‘hospitals with good rates’. Among the factors of hospital choice that differ before and after obtaining public reporting information, 'nearby hospitals' and 'hospitals with good rates' increased, while 'usual hospitals’ and 'famous hospitals' decreased. Compared to the health-related occupation group, the non-health related occupation group showed a significant difference between 'famous hospitals', and 'hospitals with good rates' before and after obtaining information (Famous hospitals p=0.003, Hospitals with good rates p=0.002).ConclusionsThe publicly available hospital quality ratings influence people’s choice of hospital, increasing the risk of selecting a hospital with a good rating than the nearest hospital, which is recommended for AMI patients. Policy-makers need to stress the importance of choosing the nearest hospital when AMI symptoms occur, in addition to hospital ratings, in the public reporting.