Surgeons' perceptions of public reporting of hospital and individual surgeon quality.
BACKGROUND
Hospital-specific and surgeon-specific public reporting of performance measures is expanding largely due to calls for transparency from the public and oversight agencies. Surgeons continue to voice concerns regarding public reporting. Surgeons' perceptions of hospital-level and individual-level public reporting have not been assessed. This study (1) evaluated surgeons' perceptions of public reporting of surgical quality; and (2) identified specific barriers to surgeons' acceptance of public reporting.


METHODS
All surgeons (n=185) at 4 hospitals (university, children's, 2 community hospitals), representing all surgical specialties, received a 41-item anonymous Internet-based survey. Twenty follow-up qualitative interviews were conducted to assess surgeons' interpretation of findings.


RESULTS
The survey response rate was 66% (n=122). Most surgeons supported public reporting of quality metrics at the hospital level (80%), but opposed individual reporting (53%, P<0.01). Fewer surgeons expected that individual (26%) or hospital (47%) public reporting would improve outcomes (P<0.01). Few indicated that their practice would change with hospital (11%) or individual (18%) public reporting (P=0.20). Primary concerns regarding public reporting at the hospital level included patients misinterpreting data, surgeons refusing high-risk patients, and outcome metric validity. Individual-surgeon level concerns included outcome metric validity, adequate sample sizes, and patients misinterpreting data. To make public reporting more acceptable, surgeons recommended patient education, simplified data presentation, continued risk-adjustment refinement, and internal review before public reporting.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgeons expressed concerns about public reporting of quality metrics, particularly reporting of individual surgeon performance. These concerns must be addressed to gain surgeons' acceptance and to use public reporting to improve health care quality.
*Department of Surgery, Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center †Center for Healthcare Studies ‡Comprehensive Transplant Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University §Department of Surgery, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
Karen L
KL
Sherman
Elisa J
EJ
Gordon
David M
DM
Mahvi
Jeanette
J
Chung
David J
DJ
Bentrem
Jane L
JL
Holl
Karl Y
KY
Bilimoria
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010465:Perception; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*