This response to an article by Tom Ireland published in GP on 7 November 2008 was submitted by Stephen Thornton, chief executive of The Health Foundation.
In his article of 7 November, Tom Ireland incorrectly interprets the findings of a report published by The Health Foundation to assess whether the public release of performance results improves quality of care.
Contrary to the article’s assertion, our systematic review of research shows that the publication of performance results can motivate quality improvement activities in healthcare organizations. It can do this by identifying under-performing areas and harnessing the competitive instincts of doctors and managers.
As our report states, many of the reviewed studies found favourable quality improvement activity resulted from the publication of performance data. To focus on the ‘instances’ to which Mr Ireland refers in his article is a disingenuous interpretation of our comprehensive research.
I would urge you to interrogate the evidence for yourself by reading our report
> Does public release of performance results improve quality of care? A systematic review