Why You Need to Say Anything

Quality Information Is New

Someday, consumers may look at information on health care quality in the same way that they now look at data on vehicle safety and reliability: no one needs to explain that vehicles differ or why consumers should care about those differences. But for now, sponsors have to recognize that most consumers don't fully appreciate how objective, comparative information on health care quality can help them make better decisions for themselves and their families. Rather, they are accustomed to getting the information they think they need from people they trust, including family members and physicians. As a result, reports on quality must include at least a brief explanation of the purpose and value of the information they contain. This section suggests ways to state this case.

Select for Suggested Readings on Where Consumers Get Information on health care.

Quality Information Is Complex

Even in its simplest form, health care quality information is hard to comprehend and even harder to use. When you present quality data, you are asking readers to interpret a measure (which is often a numerical formula), understand what it says about a health care organization, grasp how it relates to quality, and appreciate what it implies about the quality of care they may receive. Then they must repeat that stream of tasks for multiple measures across multiple organizations. This is not easy to do—and it's even harder in the absence of material that offers a context for the exercise.

This section of the Web site is intended to help sponsors identify the messages that can help set the stage for data on health care quality, making it easier for the audience to understand what your report tells them and how they may use the information most effectively.

But Can You Say Everything?

Despite the importance of providing some context for quality data, sponsors need to recognize that no report can include all the explanatory material you might want to offer. This is one of the great challenges of constructing a report like this: without some explanation, people will not understand the data—but if you provide too much of an explanation, people won't bother to read anything. How you handle this trade-off between keeping the document short enough to be manageable and informative enough to be useful depends on several factors, including your audience and the medium you decide to use. For example, an audience already familiar with the issues may not need much context. Or you may want to use the Web as a way to offer access to explanatory material without burdening the reader who wants to skip it.