Dec. 11, 2000 (Washington) -- A majority of Americans are more concerned about their health care providers' potential mistakes than the implied risks of flying on an airplane, according to results from a national survey sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The results released Monday found that about 70% of people surveyed consider medical errors and malpractice suits to be of greatest value in helping determine the overall quality of their health care providers.

The survey demonstrates that the media attention to medical errors has helped establish a new agenda, says Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, of Menlo Park, Calif. "Media attention to the Institute of Medicine story [about the number of medical errors] has propelled medical errors to the forefront in just a short period of time," he says.

"Th[is] doesn't mean consumers aren't getting good care," says Charles Inlander, president of the People's Medical Society, a leading consumer advocacy group. But the results demonstrate that public policy has not kept pace with the public's concerns, Inlander tells WebMD.

Unless lawmakers and regulators now move forward with proposed new laws such as opening the National Practitioner Databank, "we are going to be back here 4 years from now," Islander explains. The National Practitioner Databank is a national compilation of health care information holding such information as the names of doctors that have been sued for malpractice.

"I think the results about medical errors is striking," agrees Peter Lee, JD, president of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a nonprofit business consortium. But the real story, Lee says, is why consumers still don't use this information about their health care providers to make their treatment decisions.

The survey, whose results are based upon telephone conversations with over 2,000 adults, found that while Americans are more likely now than just 4 years ago to recognize the differences between health plans, hospitals, and specialists, a mere 12% used any of that information to make their health care-related decisions.

This "disconnection" demonstrates that consumers are not getting the right information, Lee says. Among the reasons listed by the respondents for not using the available information is that the information was not relevant to their needs, was provided at the wrong time, and did not cover other specifics such as cost. About 70% surveyed also said that they never saw any relevant information.

Despite consumers' concern about quality, this "disconnection" also demonstrates that other factors such as cost continue to play a large roll in health care-related purchasing decisions, says Sam Ho, MD, director of quality management for PacifiCare Health Systems, a national insurer. About half of all Americans with health insurance are covered by employer-based plans, making comparative quality information also less relevant to most consumers, he points out.

Still, the survey will help employers and consumers make better choices down the line, says Greg Meyers, MD, MSc, director of the Center for Quality Measurement and Improvement at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The survey shows what type of information consumers want, and will help design new methods for disseminating that information to health care purchasers such as employers, he tells WebMD.

Additional findings of the survey were:

People are more likely to ask for recommendations about doctors, hospitals, or health plans from people they know -- like friends and family -- than to contact official organizations or look at printed information.

Medical errors are considered the top measure of health care quality.

In determining the quality of care provided by a certain health plan, people are more likely to look at the doctors' qualifications than the access they might have to specialists or the plan's cost.

Although people are turning to the Internet for health care information, few trust the information provided by web sites

A majority of Americans believe that the government should be more involved in providing information about the quality of health care offered by different health plans and providers.

(From WebMD)