Physicians ’ Views on Public Reporting of Hospital Quality Data

This article describes physicians ’ responses to patient questions and physicians ’ views about public reports on hospital quality. Interviews with 56 office-based physicians in seven states/regions used hypothetical scenarios of patients questioning referrals based on public reports of hospital quality. Responses were analyzed using an iterative cod-ing process to develop categories and themes from data. Four themes describe physi-cians ’ responses to patients: (a) rely on existing physician–patient relationships, (b) acknowledge and consider patient perspectives, (c) take actions to follow up on patient concerns, and (d) provide patients ’ perspectives on quality reports. Three themes sum-marize responses to hospital quality reports: perceived lack of methodological rigor, content considerations in reports, and attitudes/experience regarding reports. Findings suggest that physicians take seriously patients ’ questions about hospital-quality reports and consider changing referral recommendations based on their concerns and/or pref-erences. Results underscore the importance of efforts by report developers and physi-cian outreach/education to address physicians ’ methodological concerns