Current Projects:
IPI staff are active in a several projects that promote healthcare information transparency. For example, IPI staff currently:
- Serve as the consumer voice on health care quality, safety and cost policy committees including the American Board of Medical Specialties, the National Quality Forum, Johns Hopkins Hospital, the New York State Department of Health and the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.
- Chair the Medical Board Roundtable, a group of patient/consumer advocates from 20 states interested in physician accountability and increasing public awareness and responsiveness of state medical boards to patients, families, and the public. For more information: https://www.patientsafetyaction.org/our-work/physician-oversight-and-accountability/
- Assisted the Covid Tracking Project (https://covidtracking.com/) in understanding what type of information is publicly available about COVID in long-term care facilities nationwide/monitored ongoing issues of quality and safety in long-term care facilities. For more information: https://covidtracking.com/data/longtermcare
- Track state and federal policy on health care quality, patient safety, transparency and cost including public reporting, apology/disclosure, and patient access to medical record information.
- Maintain database of over 1000 report cards on doctors, hospitals and nursing homes.
Strategic Direction:
Working towards greater transparency:
Transparency around healthcare cost, quality, and safety is important no matter what healthcare system evolves. As taxpayers and as people who become patients or caregivers at any moment, we have a right to know about the health professionals and health organizations that we use. But what does it mean to be transparent? IPI plans to work towards answering this question through a series of proposed projects over the next five years.
Long-Term Care (LTC):
Building on past work on nursing home report cards and online information to support LTC decision-making (http://www.chcf.org/publications/2013/11/tangled-web-ltc-options), IPI, through its new initiatives, strives to develop solutions that will assist consumers with decision-making about long-term care options, with an emphasis on quality, patient safety and cost.