The power of "report shaming" in transforming care. #hctassembly
— EMR, EHR and HIT (@ehrandhit) October 27, 2015
This tweet was inspired by a hospital CIO who was talking about the power of reports to shame providers into doing what’s right. I was a little shocked myself when the CIO called it report shaming. No one likes the word shaming, but that’s really what’s happening. Sure, you could be more politically correct and call it holding doctors accountable or creating transparency in your organization, but you can’t argue that fear of being shamed isn’t a powerful form of motivation.
The nice thing in health care is that there’s usually a really powerful mission behind the reports. The report usually represents something that’s best for the patients and every doctor I know cares about improving the care they provide. Sometimes they just need a report to motivate them to do it. Shouldn’t any healthcare provider be ashamed if reports show that they’re not providing the best care possible?
Many could argue that these reports aren’t providing better care. If that’s the case, then you need to rethink the reports. Plus, there shouldn’t be shame in not complying with reports that don’t actually improve care and improve the organization’s ability to take care of patients. Providers should kick back against reports that don’t make health care better. However, I’ve found that it’s usually not the case.
Feel free to call it something other than report shaming if you wish, but there’s a real power in showing healthcare providers how well they’re performing. That becomes even more powerful when you share it across the organization. Technology has made this so simple to do. Our medical education system has created a highly competitive culture between doctors. So, it’s no surprise that performance transparency across providers really works to motivate them to do more and better.
