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Illinois was the first state to call for a Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide, passing the legislation in 2003.
The report card was meant to document hospital-acquired infections and the adequacy of nursing staffs. The consumer guide was to compare hospitals' performance on 30 leading medical procedures with wide variation in outcomes and costs.
The state also called for an adverse-events report that would disclose egregious hospital errors, such as patients who have surgery on the wrong limb.
But delays hamstrung the projects, and Illinois fell behind other states.
Officials said they had to amend the authorizing legislation, a long, cumbersome process. It took more than two years for the state to appoint a consumer advisory panel for the effort.
Publication dates called for in the legislation came and went. The adverse-events report remains unfinished.
But finally, the report card and consumer guide are a reality, albeit in a slightly diminished form.
To start, the consumer guide is reporting on only 11 conditions, instead of the 30 originally called for. More data will be added in the months ahead, said Mary Driscoll, who's overseeing the project for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Hospital Association plans to publish its own Web guide to hospitals in late December or January. It will report some data on 300 common medical conditions, as well as a much broader range of quality measures from Medicare data than appear on the new state Web site, said Patricia Merryweather, senior vice president of the association.
The report card was meant to document hospital-acquired infections and the adequacy of nursing staffs. The consumer guide was to compare hospitals' performance on 30 leading medical procedures with wide variation in outcomes and costs.
The state also called for an adverse-events report that would disclose egregious hospital errors, such as patients who have surgery on the wrong limb.
But delays hamstrung the projects, and Illinois fell behind other states.
Officials said they had to amend the authorizing legislation, a long, cumbersome process. It took more than two years for the state to appoint a consumer advisory panel for the effort.
Publication dates called for in the legislation came and went. The adverse-events report remains unfinished.
But finally, the report card and consumer guide are a reality, albeit in a slightly diminished form.
To start, the consumer guide is reporting on only 11 conditions, instead of the 30 originally called for. More data will be added in the months ahead, said Mary Driscoll, who's overseeing the project for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Meanwhile, the Illinois Hospital Association plans to publish its own Web guide to hospitals in late December or January. It will report some data on 300 common medical conditions, as well as a much broader range of quality measures from Medicare data than appear on the new state Web site, said Patricia Merryweather, senior vice president of the association.
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