An article in the March issue of Health Affairs argues that national hospital ratings systems share few common scores and may generate confusion instead of clarity. The article, which included Consumer Reports' Hospital Safety Score in its assessment of four ratings systems, attracted media coverage from the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and BMJ, among others -- and has been a topic of lively discussion in healthcare quality circles.

As Doris Peter, Ph.D, director of our Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, explained to the Wall Street Journal, the divergent findings are not a surprise to us. We are still early in the movement toward collecting and reporting clear, relevant, actionable data on hospital quality.  Consumer Reports, Leapfrog Group, US News & World Report, and Healthgrades are rating different aspects of hospital quality.

I want to remind our partners and friends that here at Consumer Reports, our focus is on patient safety and the needs of consumers.

Each year, about 440,000 people die from a preventable medical harm inside a U.S. hospital. We want that to change. A key goal for us is to help raise people's awareness about the safety of their local hospitals, so they can choose to avoid low performers (if they have a choice of hospital) or take action to protect themselves once they are there. For example, if a hospital is categorized as poor at communicating with patients about which drugs they should be taking, patients need to spend more time making sure they understand the instructions.

Today, the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center presents findings in a comprehensive and easy-to-use way that people can use to help identify the right hospital for their care and treatment. And we strive to improve our methods and presentation of Ratings for the benefit of consumers.

In particular, we are constantly seeking and demanding better data. The need for reliable, up-to-date, consumer-centric data is essential for all of us working in this field. With better data will come better ratings and, most importantly, better information for consumers.

Consumer Reports' constituency is, and will always be, the consumer. While some other raters have business models that involve payments from hospitals, ours does not. We accept no money from hospitals. When we make our Ratings available more widely through our partners, we do so with strict conditions that ensure the information is for the benefit of employees and members.

Our independence and objectivity make us different. And that's why consumers have put their trust in us for decades.