Understanding and using comparative healthcare information; the effect of the amount of information and consumer characteristics and skills

Table 1 Aspects of comparative healthcare information shown to each subgroup (translated from Dutch)

	Hospital A	Hospital B	Hospital C	Subgroup
Conduct of doctors	★★★	★★☆	★★☆	1, 2, 3, 4
Conduct of nurses	★★☆	★☆☆	★★☆	2, 3,4
Pain control	★★☆	★★☆	★★☆	3,4
Information about new medication	★★★	★★☆	★★☆	4
Information provision before surgery	Yes	No	Yes	2,3,4
Procedures to prevent adverse effects of thrombosis	Yes	Yes	No	1,2,3,4
Registration of complications related to THA/TKA	Yes	No	Yes	3,4
National registration of orthopaedic implants	Yes	Yes	Yes	3,4
Transfusion of homologous blood	Yes	Yes	No	4
Specialist areas of orthopaedist	No	No	No	2,3,4
Number of performed total knee- or hip replacements among adults in a year	314	98	244	1,2,3,4
Number of performed total knee- or hip replacements among children in a year	0	1	0	4
Number of orthopaedists in the hospital	8	2	4	2,3,4
Information provision approach	Written information material and briefings	Written information material	Written information material	3,4
Group-hospital admission	Yes	No	No	4

★★★ better than average.
★★☆ average.
★☆☆ worse than average.
The information provided was derived from patient experience indicators measured by the Consumer Quality Index (CQI: the Dutch standard for measuring patient experiences in healthcare), and indicators about hospital services and clinical performance indicators were derived from hospital registrations.