Information about quality is beginning to be considered by some employers as they make purchasing decisions about health care, particularly care provided in hospitals. It's data that wasn't always relevant in Wichita in previous years, when insurance plans directed their members to one hospital or another.
But the new federal health care act emphasizes data, and many employers now offer insurance that allows their employees to choose which hospital to use, so quality becomes more important.
Ron Whiting, executive director of the Wichita Business Coalition on Health Care, has prepared two data briefs for coalition members.
"Do we assume that all hospital care is of the same quality?" he asks in the first. "Is hospital care something we should purchase based strictly on price?"
His answers?
No and no.
"The quality is assumed to be all the same," he said. "There's just not thought given to it.... There's very little questioning about outcomes."
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