Need for a Healthcare Rating Movement

Healthcare is one of those vital resources for the nation, the development of which is directly related to another important resource i.e. the human resource. It is not hard to understand that healthy citizens contribute better to the social and economic growth of a country. Thus, building up of a superior quality healthcare system is of prime importance for any nation, big or small. But bringing quality to healthcare is easier said than done. There are many constraints to it and these constraints differ from nation to nation. While some nations have financial restraints, some others have the lack of quality medical practitioners. Though the condition of the overall healthcare sector, in general, has improved worldwide, there is still a long way to go.

In such a situation, the discussion is going on about whether there is a need for rating for the hospitals. Credible credit rating organizations have been successfully working in the developed countries to benchmark industries, businesses, and economies. Such rating systems have helped during the crisis period of banks and other financial organizations. This has led to the thought that the rating movements need to take shape in the healthcare sector as well. The idea of a rating system is not as simple as it sounds as there are as many hurdles as there are benefits to it.

Key Benefits of a Healthcare Rating Movement

One of the most heartening aspects of healthcare ratings is that it shows that levels of consumer health literacy are on the rise. The times when consumers used to rely on friends and family for their healthcare decisions are steadily changing. The advice of friends and family, obviously, were not based on any solid evidence backed by data. There are multiple things to be taken into account before giving the thumbs up to a health center. For instance, a friend that recommends an institute highly for the treatment he got for jaundice while the other berates the same center for their cardiology department. So, people are now looking for genuine reviews and ratings that take into account every detail, when making their healthcare decisions.

The healthcare industry is steadily moving from being supply-driven to demand-driven with increasing focus on patient experience and satisfaction. The scrutiny has led to an emphasis on transparency in healthcare. It has been seen in countries like the USA that the health plans and hospitals that have enrolled voluntarily in rating systems offer a higher quality of care as compared to those that have not.

Medical ratings enable the disclosure of the level of performance of a hospital to the general population. It is beneficial for the patients as they get to opt for the best healthcare by assessing the performance of the care providers. It also serves as a huge benefit for the health institutes as they can focus on the gaps in their performance and can work to improve upon their weak areas. The ratings set a benchmark that the health institutions can aspire to achieve.

The Hurdles to Overcome in the Path

Healthcare rating is a step in the right direction but there are several hurdles in the path to smooth implementation of such a system. There are several issues that arise when thinking of the need for a healthcare rating system. The first thing is the question regarding who will be rating the health institutes. There can be a stand-alone institution with affiliations to the government to enjoy the maximum acceptance among people. The other way is to employ private companies for the job. In most of the developed countries like the USA, it is the private organizations or limited liability entities that carry out the job. No matter what the affiliations are, the need is for an organization with enough credibility to give unbiased assessments.

The next question is about what will be the criteria for assessment of the healthcare systems. There are several unquantifiable factors at work in the system like patient satisfaction, the variable rate of recovery, and others. Healthcare is a service-based industry which automatically makes quantifying it a difficult task. The methods to rate these variables still remains a topic of debate among the ones pushing for a healthcare rating system.

The other doubt is about how far the organizations generating the rating will be trusted by the people. This, in turn, will determine how trustworthy the ratings will be to the common public. The hospital ratings will become important benchmarks for government tendering and contracting, and the authorities will no longer need to depend on the metrics from unreliable sources. Thus, such a significant thing as rating needs to have the credibility and trustworthiness to proceed forward. Besides, in the past few years, there have been many reports of medical negligence which have led people to be skeptical about any medical rating institution in general.

It is indeed time for a healthcare rating movement to take place in the country. But there are some steps to be taken before we can move into that direction full-fledged. There needs to be a zeal of self-regulation among hospitals as no ratings can work if the institute is not feeling within itself the need to reform and be better than before. There is also a need for improvement of doctor-patient communication. The patient needs to trust the caregiver in order for the treatments to actually work. Ratings are not the single solution to everything related to the progress of the healthcare industry. There needs to be accreditation and self-monitoring to help in the improvement of perceptions and standards of care.

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