Health Care

Seton proposes new children's hospital
Austin American Statesman 10/18/02

Seton Healthcare Network wants to close Children's Hospital of Austin and build a new facility that, unlike the current one, would not be owned by the city.

The plan, which still needs the approval of Seton's board and the Austin City Council, could dramatically increase the city's healthcare costs while privatizing what for years has been a safety net for poor and uninsured children across the region.

Seton said it remains committed to indigent care and would continue serving the poor at the new facility and at Brackenridge Hospital, also owned by the city and managed by Seton.

Yet healthcare officials and advocates reacted to the announcement with alarm, noting that Children's Hospital is one of the few money-making operations associated with Brackenridge. The two have been separate entities since 1988.

It would be much harder to find someone to operate Brackenridge without either Children's Hospital's profits or millions more from taxpayers, said Lisa McGiffert, a health policy analyst for the Southwest regional office of Consumers Union in Austin.

"They could be taking away the only part of the public hospital that keeps everything afloat," McGiffert said of Seton. "That could have a definite impact on the availability of indigent care on this city."

Straight shooting; Texas consumers at last get look at hospital report card
Modern Healthcare 10/14/02

After a seven-year wait, Lone Star state consumers finally got their first look at hospital discharge and mortality data last week when the Texas Health Care Information Council issued its first hospital report card.

Lisa McGiffert, a health policy analyst at Austin, Texas-based Consumers Union, said the first hospital report has met the consumer organization's expectations. ''This is what we had in mind,'' McGiffert said. ''There is lots of room for improvement, but it's fairly easy for consumers to navigate through the system by procedure or condition.''

She said she hopes hospitals will take a hard look at how they compare and work to improve quality. She noted that the average C-section rate of 27% for Texas hospitals far exceeds the national rate of 15%.

McGiffert said the first step in moving to a quality-based healthcare system is educating the public about quality indicators to help patients make intelligent choices.

Local hospitals have higher death rate in 5 of 25 categories
Corpus Christi Caller-Times 10/13/02

Corpus Christi hospitals had higher death rates in 2000 for five out of 25 surgeries and diagnoses when compared with 411 hospitals in the state, according to a recent report from a state agency.

The report is the first of its kind in the nation based on statewide quality-of-care data. The report, titled "Indicators of Inpatient Care in Texas Hospitals 2000," is accessible at www.thcic.state.tx.us.

Malpractice lawsuits may contribute to the c-section rates, said Dr. Richard Davis, vice president of medical affairs for Christus Spohn Health System.
Doctors may feel safer in performing c-sections when complications arise for fear of getting sued if something goes wrong.

"I think there's no question (the rates) are a factor of the litigation climate in which we live as well as the lack of prenatal care,'' Davis said.

But some hospitals may push c-sections on patients when they're not needed, cautioned Consumers Union health policy analyst Lisa McGiffert.

"Those high cesarean rates may be about convenience on the part of the doctor,'' she said.

Report charts hospitals' records
Fort Worth Star Telegram 10/09/02

One in 10 Texas heart-attack patients died in 2000, but the risk for some patients actually ranged much higher depending upon where they were treated, according to a state agency's first report on hospital quality.

The first report comes too late to influence health insurance decisions by big employers, who have generally decide by August which insurance plans -- and thus the related hospitals -- to offer their employees for the next year.
But it could provide employees who are still enrolling in those plans some information on which to base their decisions, said Lisa McGiffert, an Austin-based health policy analyst for Consumers Union, a consumer advocacy group that pushed for the 1995 legislation that created the agency.

"If one hospital has a poor performance, it may cause someone to look at another plan that doesn't use that hospital," she said

Report allows patients to compare hospitals
The Houston Chronicle 10/09/02

Like shopping for cars or furniture, hospital patients in Texas can now comparison shop their chances of surviving a surgical procedure at more than 400 hospitals in the state.

On Tuesday, the Texas Health Care Information Council issued a report, billing it the first of its kind in the nation, that ranked patient outcomes at hospitals including those in the renowned Texas Medical Center.

Yet at least one consumer group complained of shortcomings: Hospitals are compared with no mention of doctors' records and the information is outdated. "The law protects the confidentiality of patients but also gives physicians confidentiality," said Lisa McGiffert, health policy analyst at Consumers Union. "The disadvantage of that is if there was one physician causing a problem, it's going to make the hospital look bad."

Texas to Release Hospital Report Cards on Tuesday
Knight Ridder Tribune Business News 10/08/02

A state agency will release treatment results on Tuesday from hundreds of hospitals, giving Texans online access to such information as death rates for heart attacks and bypass surgery and how frequently Caesarean sections are performed.

Texas joins a growing list of states where consumers and employers can rely on more than glossy marketing brochures and word of mouth in making healthcare decisions.

But some groups question whether the first hospital-specific reports from the Texas Health Care Information Council, which was created by the Legislature seven years ago to collect and distribute medical information, are being released in the most helpful form for consumers.

"There is no universal consensus on what quality is," he said. "We are not in a position to say that higher numbers or lower numbers are better on a given issue. We completely avoid the discussion of what it means and lay out the facts and allow the users to determine what it means."

But the council has a responsibility to provide analysis, said Lisa McGiffert, Austin-based health-policy analyst for Consumers Union, which advocated the legislation.

"Many hospitals have wanted to strip this down to the minimal amount of information," McGiffert said. "We think that's the wrong way to go. We should maximize this information. The hospitals are certainly doing that internally in comparing themselves to other hospitals."

State releases first report measuring state hospitals
The Associated Press State & Local Wire 10/08/02

A first-of-its-kind report released Tuesday by a state agency aims to arm Texans with information about how well hospitals do at certain medical procedures.

Beginning Tuesday, consumers can search the Texas Health Care Information Council's Web site, http://www.thcic.state.tx.us, find treatment results for 25 medical conditions or surgeries, including stroke, pneumonia and baby delivery.
Information includes death rates for heart attacks and bypass surgery and how frequently Caesarean sections are performed. The council was created by the Legislature seven years ago.

"The report marks an important first step in fostering hospital competition based on quality of care, but improvements will be needed to make it more consumer friendly in the future," said Lisa McGiffert, Austin-based health-policy analyst for Consumers Union, which advocated the legislation.

"The report being made available today requires consumers to do more work to access the information than they should," McGiffert said. "The reader is not able to easily see how a given hospital performs across the board on all 25 quality indicators. That information must be compiled manually."

State agency to release data from hospitals on Web today
Fort Worth Star Telegram 10/08/02

A state agency will release treatment results today from hundreds of hospitals, giving Texans online access to such information as death rates for heart attacks and bypass surgery and how frequently Caesarean sections are performed.

But some groups question whether the first hospital-specific reports from the Texas Health Care Information Council, which was created by the Legislature seven years ago to collect and distribute medical information, are being released in the most helpful form for consumers.

The council and its advisory committees debated whether to publish the results alphabetically or by factors such as death rates. They chose the alphabetical listing because it will make it easier for consumers to find a particular hospital's results, said Jim Loyd, the council's executive director.
But the council has a responsibility to provide analysis, said Lisa McGiffert, Austin-based health-policy analyst for Consumers Union, which advocated the legislation.

"Many hospitals have wanted to strip this down to the minimal amount of information," McGiffert said. "We think that's the wrong way to go. We should maximize this information. The hospitals are certainly doing that internally in comparing themselves to other hospitals."

TEXAS: TO RELEASE REPORT ON HOSPITALS ONLINE TODAY
American Health Line 10/08/02

The Texas Health Care Information Council today will post online a report on the results of treatment for 25 medical conditions or surgeries performed in 2000 in hundreds of hospitals statewide, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The release of the hospital report -- which includes information such as the number of caesarean sections performed and the mortality rate for heart bypass surgery at hospitals in the state -- will make Texas one of a "growing list of states where consumers and employers can rely on more than glossy marketing brochures" in health care decisions.

However, some employers and consumer advocates questioned the form of the report. The report "cannot be downloaded or easily searched" and lists hospitals in alphabetical order rather than by rank, the Star-Telegram reports.
Lisa McGiffert, a health policy analyst for Consumers Union, said that the state health care information council has a responsibility to provide analysis of hospitals and should "maximize" the information in the report.