Quality and Safety
Perhaps complicating the picture is the cost of implementing a quality improvement program, the authors said.
Even though it didn't identify any actual misuse of the information, Beacon is offering affected patients access to free identity monitoring.
Overly aggressive care can hurt patients, generating mistakes and injuries believed to cause 30,000 deaths each year.
The study found that 30-day mortality rates were 1.5 percent lower at teaching hospitals, and that rate was consistent across nearly every procedure and condition.
Project took AHRQ's Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program, and molded it around long-term care facilities.
The California bill, SB 349, says that inadequate staffing is leading to hospitalizations, medical errors and "unnecessary and avoidable deaths."
Report said 6 in 10 hospitals looked at had c-section rates above the national target rate for low-risk births.
Authors caution that the findings should be considered exploratory, but say that the gap could be bridged by continuing education, re-training.
David R. Scrase, MD, says quality reporting made him a better physician; David L. Hahn, MD, said it adds to physician burnout.
Researchers found nearly a third of approvals from 2001 through 2010 had major safety issues years after they were widely available to patients.|