The Puget Sound Health Alliance (the Alliance) has relaunched its newly redesigned Community Checkup website (www.wacommunitycheckup.org), presenting the Alliance’s trustworthy information on quality care in a consumer friendly format meant to encourage people to make informed decisions about where to go for health care and how to take a more active role in their health.
The website allows consumers to compare performance among medical groups, clinics and hospitals in the region on delivering quality care, based on data collected by the Alliance and other nationally recognized organizations. The data is complemented by expanded information and resources that help patients take care of themselves and make sure they are receiving the right care at the right time for the right reason.
“We want people to understand how the quality of health care varies within our region,” said Mary McWilliams, executive director of the Alliance.
“This website has been completely redesigned to make it a more effective tool to empower people to find high-quality, high-value care that works for them. In addition to finding objective data on the quality of care among medical groups, clinics and hospitals, people can find useful tips and information to help them learn what they can do themselves, and what they should expect from their caregivers.”
For the first time, comparative information is now also available at the individual provider level on one category of metrics: generic drugs. The new site includes data on how well primary care providers in the region — which includes King, Snohomish, Pierce and Thurston counties — are doing to meet quality care measures for prescribing generic drugs in four drug classes: statins, antidepressants, pain relievers, and stomach acid drugs.
“We have been using the Community Checkup as a tool to help us work together as a community to address underuse, misuse and overuse in the health care system,” McWilliams said. “Now, with a much more consumer-friendly, action-directed site, we are inviting everyone to engage with us.”
The Community Checkup has been published regularly since 2008, and reports on how well health care is delivered in the five counties in the Puget Sound region — King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston. The Community Checkup measures quality and appropriateness of care at medical groups and clinics in the areas of prevention, chronic disease management, generic drug substitution and appropriate use of services. The new website contains data from the 2012 Community Checkup results, which cover the period of July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The results are based upon insurance claims from approximately two million people in the Puget Sound region. In addition, the results from the Alliance’s patient experience survey, the first comprehensive survey of its type in the region, are also available on the site. The Community Checkup also reports on hospital quality with results being drawn from several public sources.
About the Puget Sound Health Alliance
The Puget Sound Health Alliance (www.pugetsoundhealthalliance.org), an Aligning Forces for Quality Community, is a non-profit made up of those who provide, pay for and use health care, working to improve quality of care at a price more people can afford. More than 165 organizations have joined the Alliance, including The Boeing Company, Starbucks, Puget Sound Energy, REI, WA State Health Care Authority, King County and many other employers, physician groups, hospitals, consumer organizations, unions, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, associations and others. A cornerstone of the Alliance work is the Community Checkup, a regional report to the public comparing the performance of clinics and hospitals for basic measures of quality care in the Puget Sound area (www.wacommunitycheckup.org).
