Assignment task:
Purpose: To identify sources of consumer healthcare information, and to evaluate whether these are trusted and reliable.
Go to two different consumer sites to evaluate a clinician and a hospital you know. Clarification: look at two different sites for a clinician and two for a hospital (one must be per directions in #1 i.e. Medicare dot gov compare).
Based on what you found, address the following questions, listing the sites you consulted:
What type of information did you find?
Is the available information helpful? Is one better than the other in your opinion? Why?
Do you think differently about the provider or hospital after visiting the sites?
Is there a commercial interest in the site (for example, what kinds of ads do you see, or can providers pay a fee to be listed or recommended?)
For the hospital only, visit Medicare.gov | Hospital Compare. Based on what you found, address the following questions, listing the sites you reviewed.
What type of information did you find?
Is the available information helpful? Is one better than the other in your opinion? Why?
Do you think differently about the hospital after visiting the sites?
Is there a commercial interest of the site (for example, what kinds of ads do you see, or can organizations pay a fee to be listed or recommended?)
Is the information for the hospital more helpful or less helpful on this site?
Is there a trend toward transparency? Want Online Tutoring?
Tips for this activity:
The commercial sites most commonly used in this class have been WebMD, Vitals.com, U.S. News and World Reports rankings, Yelp, RateMDs, Healthgrades, and Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. If you find others, I ask you to think about the methodology used in the rankings. For example:
I had never heard of HealthCare6before reading about it in papers from previous semesters. There does not appear to be sound methodology or any type of real consumer info other than listings. There are also typos and grammatical errors on this site. I definitely would not recommend it as a reliable consumer healthcare tool.
Sharecare find a doctor and Sharecare sponsors are examples of emerging models in patient engagement. There is definitely a commercial interest on this site. Would you find it helpful as a patient, or would you recommend it to patients? There are pros and cons that you could discuss.
How would a patient consider the U.S. News rankings if they were constrained by geography (access) or insurance coverage? For example, if my health plan doesn't cover going to Mayo or Johns Hopkins, should I be concerned I'm getting inferior care?
Lobbying groups like the American Hospital Association (AHA) and AARP also have a lot of consumer-facing information, but just like all our sources, we want to be sure we are aware of particular policy and financial positions that may factor into the information presented.
Governmental sources will have a layer of validation and quantitative analysis before data are reported through public-facing channels. Rates, scores and quality metrics are used as quantitative benchmarks, not simply subjective consumer reviews.