Why Quality Matters
You have unique health care needs perhaps throughout the rest of your life.
Over time, as you form a relationship with a primary care doctor, you may need specialized care as you begin a family or experience a specific condition. Later in life, you may face the need to evaluate long term care or complex treatment options.
You desire quality health care at each stage - but how do you know when you've found it? The answer depends on the way you evaluate and prioritize the many health care quality indicators. As patients, you have greater access to health care information than ever before.
As you read more about health care quality, remember these three points:
- You have many ways to assess the quality of health care providers.
- It's important to understand how various indicators of quality are gathered and measured.
- The more you understand health care quality, the better choices you'll make for you and your family.
When comparing health care providers and facilities be sure to access a variety of different sources for information.
When a health care organization is accredited, you can be assured they have met (or exceeded) the standards and measures considered to be most important by the accrediting organization.
Experience is another important indicator of health care quality. Whether you're seeking primary care or facing a complex procedure, you want to know that the health care professional routinely offers the care and is prepared for any possible complications.
An organizations commitment to innovative care may also be part of your decision. Find out more about MeritCare's commitment to using advanced technology to promote the health of our patients.
As you've likely discovered, the Internet is an endless resource for health care information. But, because nearly anyone can publish information online, the Internet is also filled with inaccuracies, conflicting information and questionable experts. How do you know if a particular organization's Web site is credible and reliable?
Many organizations review and assess health care quality. The quality reports they publish are becoming more widely available to patients, including many reports available on the Internet. Because they analyze different aspects of health care, it's helpful to understand how each organization prioritizes, measures and analyzes the information in their reports.