Physician group use of patient experience survey varies

Since 2006, Massachusetts has been publicly reporting the results of a patient experience survey where patients assess the care that they received in primary care physician offices. A study by the RAND Corporation, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine has found that physician groups’ use of this data varies greatly.

Click to read more ...

RAND Launches Tool to Evaluate Health Care Proposals

The RAND Corporation today launched an online tool to provide policymakers and interested parties with a way of understanding and evaluating the effects and unintended consequences of health care reform proposals certain to be introduced in the new 111th Congress and beyond. COMPARE (Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts) is an online resource that synthesizes what is known about the current heath care system, provides information on proposals to modify the system and delivers insight about how potential policy changes are likely to affect health care delivery and costs in the United States.

Click to read more ...

Study: Unique patient IDs would improve quality, efficiency

A new Rand Corporation study suggests that a unique patient identifier would cost up to $11 billion dollars, but would reduce errors, simplify interoperability, increase efficiency, improve patient confidence and protect patient privacy. The study further suggests the gains from implementing such a system would be approximately $77 billion per year at the 90 percent level of adoption.

Click to read more ...