title: [Top 100 hospitals: varying lists, varying reputations].
abstract: In the month of September no fewer than 3 different hospital rankings appeared in the media. These rankings do not reliably portray the quality of hospitals. Since they mutually differ substantially, they provide insufficient information to motivate hospitals with lower scores to make meaningful improvements, and they only partly influence the choice of patients. Another unfavourable effect of these rankings is that hospitals may begin to focus on measured factors at the expense of unmeasured factors, such as innovation, long-term goals and cooperation. Improvements in patient care can be expected to come only from the ethics of medical professionals.
authors.affiliation: Medisch Centrum Rijnmond-Zuid, locatie Clara, afd. Klinische Pathologie, Postbus 9119, 3007 AC Rotterdam. giardr@mcrz.nl
authors.forename: R W M
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Giard
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006761:Hospitals / Q000145:classification* / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D005791:Patient Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*