Survey: Consumers need
more provider data
Puget Sound Health Alliance
to develop comparison report

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

A recent survey of Puget Sound health-care consumers found that while a strong majority believe they have access to the information they need to make healthy lifestyle decisions, less than half believe they have access to enough useful information to choose the best providers for their care.

The results of the online survey, conducted earlier this year by the Puget Sound Health Alliance, point to a gap in consumer knowledge that the nonprofit organization is working to fill, Executive Director Margaret Stanley said.

“When fewer than half of local consumers feel that they have useful information about how to find the best physician clinics in the region — and only 51 percent say they have useful information on how to find the best hospitals — it’s time to do things differently,” she said.

The online survey was created to gauge consumers’ existing perceptions of health-care quality and cost and to measure their interest in having a report comparing health-care quality, cost and patient experience at regional clinics and medical centers, said Diane Giese, director of communication and development for the alliance.

According to the survey, interest is high for just such a report. Of the nearly 2,900 surveyed, 95 percent said a comparison report should be an important priority for the alliance, and 94 percent said such a report would have an influence on their choice of hospital or provider.

Now, the alliance, a partnership of health-care stakeholders including employers, providers, hospitals, patients and insurers, is in the process of working with data vendors, health plans and other sources of existing health-care information to pull a comparison report together, Giese said.

“The intent is to have the first report in early 2007,” she said.

Because it will be the first such report for the 1-1/2-year-old agency, much of the data will come from health insurance claims data, Giese said. “Over time, we want to include more clinical and lab data for the entire community so that it paints a more accurate picture.”

Comparison reports on health-care providers are not new; health insurer Premera Blue Cross already provides its Quality Score Card measuring use of preventive screenings and cost-effective generic drugs as well as thoroughness of treatment and other variables.

What makes the Puget Sound Health Alliance’s efforts unique is the breadth of information it will have access to as well as the many facets of the health-care industry involved in putting the report together, Giese said.

She noted that alliance membership includes more than 100 organizations and consumers in Snohomish, King, Pierce, Kitsap and Thurston counties. Among them are employers such the Boeing Co., the city of Everett and Snohomish County; health-care providers The Everett Clinic, Providence Health System—Washington, Stevens Hospital and Western Washington Medical Group; and health insurers Group Health Cooperative, PacifiCare Health Systems, Premera Blue Cross and Regence BlueShield.

“The alliance is doing what no single organization ... can do by itself — they only have one slice of the pie,” Giese said.

Once the comparison report is completed, it will be made available on the Internet, she said.

Other findings of the recent consumer survey included:

• Regarding the cost of health insurance, 67 percent of respondents said the cost of health insurance for themselves is reasonable; 77 percent said that a primary focus of the alliance should be to lower the cost of health insurance; and 33 percent said the cost is fine to them, but they are concerned about others.
• Regarding access to needed information, 87 percent of those surveyed said they had the information they needed about “how to make healthy lifestyle decisions”; 80 percent said they had the information they needed to make “the best health-care decisions for myself and my family members”; and 50 percent or less said they had good information on how to find the best doctors and hospitals in the area or how to find the best treatments for a specific disease or condition.

For more information on the alliance, go online to www.pugetsoundhealthalliance.org.

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