Effects of Quality of Care Information on Consumer Choice of Physicians and Hospitals

摘要

While the assertion that informed consumers make better choices of health service providers has been advanced on the basis of opinion rather than empirical data, there is certainly no reason to believe that poorly informed or uninformed/ignorant consumers will make wise choices. It appears that quality of care information will become increasingly available to consumers, and the question is how to promote the most responsible and effective provision of that information.