Wisconsin hospitals open up to the public State association sponsors performance Web site By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle People interested in the quality of service provided by Wisconsin hospitals can visit a new Web site to find answers. The Wisconsin Hospital Association unveiled the site, called CheckPoint, on Tuesday during a news conference at St. Vincent Hospital. The Web site contains data collected from 121 Wisconsin hospitals, including all four in Green Bay - Aurora BayCare Medical Center, Bellin Health Hospital Center, St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center and St. Vincent Hospital. Reports on the site evaluate the hospitals based on 10 aspects of treatment for heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia - three conditions Wisconsin Hospital Association president Steve Brenton said are leading reasons for hospitalization. Hospitals send data they collect to a third party that prepares it for the on-line reports. The association receives the data from the third party and posts it on www.wicheckpoint.org. The association voted in December 2002 to support the project and has relegated $150,000 for first-year costs. Participating hospitals are funding the site indirectly through WHA membership dues. Brenton said he expects the sum the association invests in the site to rise as more measures are posted. Brenton predicted that evaluations on surgery, obstetrics and patient satisfaction will be posted, but he said consumers and purchasers influence which areas of care will be posted next. The site also is designed to track hospitals' progress in reaching five nationally recognized error prevention standards. The standards include taking steps to ensure the correct patient receives the proper procedure and standardizing abbreviations, acronyms and symbols used by hospital staff. The error prevention standards are voluntarily self-reported by participating hospitals, but Brenton said the association will arrange for a third party to compute the reports. Representatives from St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Center said they hope the site becomes an educational tool for patients that does not fuel more competition among hospitals. "We hope it doesn't get used to make comparisons to other hospitals," said Jim Coller, St. Mary's Hospital administrator. Betsy Benz, director of clinical improvement at St. Vincent Hospital, said she believes hospitals have a tendency to compete, but the objective of the site is to improve the performance of all hospitals. "We're doing this collaboratively to raise everyone's score higher," she said. "Benchmarking is a key part of this," said Steve Brenton, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The association overcame hospitals' fears of increased competition by creating a reporting tool that is not punitive and fair, Brenton said. Ninety-six percent of hospitals in the state are participating. More data to indicate hospitals' changes in care will be available by the end of the year. Data will be refreshed every three months. By serving on an independent committee, insurers, employers and health care providers had a hand in developing the Web site. Wisconsin Quality Initiative Steering Committee member, Robert Fale, said the Web site provides a mechanism to display performance data that rural providers can use as well. Because the association is operating the Web site, smaller hospitals in rural areas that found it financially difficult to make their data available to the public now can, he said.