[Premature and over-simplified publication of mortality differences between hospitals in the media].
Prismant, the major institute for health-care research in the Netherlands, presented differences in mortality data from hospitals in the Netherlands. The data from the Prismant study were front-page news. However, the Prismant study was only published on their own website, and contained only raw data. The author did not consider relevant issues, e.g., the differences in case mix in the various hospitals and demographic factors. The public debate on quality of health care would benefit greatly if research institutes published only data that were peer reviewed and if journalists checked with experts before they published an article on such a specialist medical issue.
van Dam
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Nederlands Kanker Instituut-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam. f.v.dam@nki.nl
van Maanen
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H
D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media / Q000592:standards; D009426:Netherlands; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*