A FAILURE TO COLLECT HEALTH STATISTICS.

A FAILURE TO COLLECT HEALTH STATISTICS. The Chicago Tribune reports here that the State of Illinois passed legislation in 2004 which called for the collection and posting of basic information on hospitals in Illinois, including: “rates of hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA, the ratio of nurses to patients, and information about the cost and volume of 30 leading procedures performed by hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.” The information seems to be rudimentary, but the laws “were groundbreaking at the time.” Only, five years later, no reports have been made. I posted recently that I think that a lot could be learned by collecting and evaluating data on medical treatments in different hospitals. The article seems to reflect how little is being done and also how little interest there seems to be in doing more.