If patients had better information about private health providers, this would stimulate competition, says the Health Market Inquiry. Patients should be able to compare the performance of private hospitals and doctors before making their choice, according to the Competition Commission’s Health Market Inquiry (HMI)
The HMI proposed this week that an independent organisation, the Outcomes Measurement and Reporting Organisation (OMRO), be set up to report on the health outcomes of private healthcare providers. It defines outcomes as “the results achieved for a patient after a given set of interventions”.
For much of last year, the HMI held public hearings into the private healthcare sector. One of its finding is that the public lacks information about how private health providers perform. It believes that public access to this information would stimulate competition. The kind of information they want us to have include clinical outcomes (eg cure rates), how long it takes for patients to get treated at facilities, the infection rate in facilities and the rate of “avoidable adverse events”…..more