tibor75
Banned
UPMC urging doctors to vote to bolster ranking
Friday, October 13, 2006
By Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Politicians aren't the only ones orchestrating get-out-the-vote campaigns this fall.
Dr. Loren Roth, chief medical officer of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, distributed a letter to local physicians last month in which he encouraged them to vote early and often for UPMC hospitals should they be among the lucky doctors asked to participate in U.S. News & World Report magazine's annual survey of "best hospitals."
Noting the medical center's recent success in the ranking by U.S. News -- UPMC was rated this year as one of the 14 best hospitals in the nation -- Dr. Roth told his physicians that: "We would like to build on this upward momentum. Hence now more than ever, UPMC needs your vote."
"If you receive a survey and respond by selecting a UPMC teaching facility (such as UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Children's Hospital and/or Magee-Womens Hospital), you can help advance UPMC's ranking," Dr. Roth wrote in the Sept. 20 letter. "In the survey you may list one hospital, several hospitals, or all of them."
While Dr. Roth was not available for comment yesterday, spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz said health system officials have sent similar letters for the past three years or so to remind physicians about the survey, and encourage their participation.
Mr. Raczkiewicz did not say how many physicians received the letter, which encourages doctors who are surveyed by U.S. News to alert the marketing office at UPMC so that officials can "update our database." The September letter encouraged doctors to submit their surveys in time for the Halloween deadline.
"Only 200 physicians across the United States in each of 16 specialties receive this survey," Dr. Roth wrote. "Therefore, your response is critical, and holds tremendous weight."
The U.S. News ranking has become a serious business for hospitals, which often incorporate accolades from the magazine in their own marketing campaigns. As such, it's not surprising that hospitals including UPMC would work to get out the vote, said Betsy Gelb, a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.
She likened the UPMC outreach to those made by professional baseball teams as they encourage fans to cast votes in favor of hometown players for the All-Star Game.
"You're not really influencing their opinion -- I think that is the honest fact," Ms. Gelb said. "You're trying to get people who would vote for your folks anyway, to, in effect, go to the polls and do so."
That may be, but it reflects poorly on the U.S. News methodology, said Ken Segel of the Value Capture Policy Institute, a North Side group that was founded in part by former Alcoa chairman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
Some experts in health care quality have long bemoaned the public attention given to the magazine's rankings, in part because U.S. News uses a hospital's reputation among physicians as one of its three main data points. A Dartmouth College study published in Health Affairs during 2004, for example, raised questions about the magazine's methodology by finding that Medicare patients with similar chronic conditions receive strikingly different care among hospitals identified as "best" in geriatrics by U.S. News.
"U.S. News is, in a sense, getting what they deserve by setting up the criteria in a way that rewards reputation disproportionately," Mr. Segel said. "They need to really shift the ratings away from reputation and toward hard evidence -- that the right outcomes are being achieved, and the right processes are being followed."
U.S. News officials did not respond to written questions seeking comment.
Dr. Roth hopes the same won't be true of UPMC physicians.
"We thank you in advance," he wrote, "for casting your vote for one or all of the eligible UPMC facilities."
Friday, October 13, 2006
By Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Politicians aren't the only ones orchestrating get-out-the-vote campaigns this fall.
Dr. Loren Roth, chief medical officer of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, distributed a letter to local physicians last month in which he encouraged them to vote early and often for UPMC hospitals should they be among the lucky doctors asked to participate in U.S. News & World Report magazine's annual survey of "best hospitals."
Noting the medical center's recent success in the ranking by U.S. News -- UPMC was rated this year as one of the 14 best hospitals in the nation -- Dr. Roth told his physicians that: "We would like to build on this upward momentum. Hence now more than ever, UPMC needs your vote."
"If you receive a survey and respond by selecting a UPMC teaching facility (such as UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Children's Hospital and/or Magee-Womens Hospital), you can help advance UPMC's ranking," Dr. Roth wrote in the Sept. 20 letter. "In the survey you may list one hospital, several hospitals, or all of them."
While Dr. Roth was not available for comment yesterday, spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz said health system officials have sent similar letters for the past three years or so to remind physicians about the survey, and encourage their participation.
Mr. Raczkiewicz did not say how many physicians received the letter, which encourages doctors who are surveyed by U.S. News to alert the marketing office at UPMC so that officials can "update our database." The September letter encouraged doctors to submit their surveys in time for the Halloween deadline.
"Only 200 physicians across the United States in each of 16 specialties receive this survey," Dr. Roth wrote. "Therefore, your response is critical, and holds tremendous weight."
The U.S. News ranking has become a serious business for hospitals, which often incorporate accolades from the magazine in their own marketing campaigns. As such, it's not surprising that hospitals including UPMC would work to get out the vote, said Betsy Gelb, a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.
She likened the UPMC outreach to those made by professional baseball teams as they encourage fans to cast votes in favor of hometown players for the All-Star Game.
"You're not really influencing their opinion -- I think that is the honest fact," Ms. Gelb said. "You're trying to get people who would vote for your folks anyway, to, in effect, go to the polls and do so."
That may be, but it reflects poorly on the U.S. News methodology, said Ken Segel of the Value Capture Policy Institute, a North Side group that was founded in part by former Alcoa chairman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
Some experts in health care quality have long bemoaned the public attention given to the magazine's rankings, in part because U.S. News uses a hospital's reputation among physicians as one of its three main data points. A Dartmouth College study published in Health Affairs during 2004, for example, raised questions about the magazine's methodology by finding that Medicare patients with similar chronic conditions receive strikingly different care among hospitals identified as "best" in geriatrics by U.S. News.
"U.S. News is, in a sense, getting what they deserve by setting up the criteria in a way that rewards reputation disproportionately," Mr. Segel said. "They need to really shift the ratings away from reputation and toward hard evidence -- that the right outcomes are being achieved, and the right processes are being followed."
U.S. News officials did not respond to written questions seeking comment.
Dr. Roth hopes the same won't be true of UPMC physicians.
"We thank you in advance," he wrote, "for casting your vote for one or all of the eligible UPMC facilities."
