Exploring willingness and related factors by using the healthcare report cards for hospitals in Taiwan

Background: During the past decade, there has been growing a trend to develop and disseminate report cards to the public in the healthcare industries of the United States. The purposes of this article were to understand the willingness of hospitals in Taiwan to use report cards and to explore the factors that influence the willingness of hospitals to use them. Methods: A postal survey study was conducted on 495 hospitals to explore factors influencing the willingness of hospitals to use report cards. A multiple logistic regression was performed to identify statistically significant factors related to the willingness of the hospitals to use report cards. Results: In total, 52.0% of the sampled hospitals were "very willing" or "willing" to use report cards. The top three factors which respondents felt most influenced the willingness of hospitals to use report cards were the provision for incorrect data, the upgrading of the image of the hospital, and the increase in administrative costs. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the willingness of hospitals to use report cards was positively significantly associated with the score of the factor "to upgrade the image of the hospital" (OR = 8.0; 95% CI 1.8-36.0), and it was negatively associated with the score of the factor "to increase the possibility of malpractice suits" (OR = 0.5; 95% CI 0.2-0.9). Conclusions: It was also found that more than half of hospitals were willing to use report cards. Thus, it is recommended that mandatory hospital report cards be initiated in order to allow consumers to make fair and accurate comparisons among hospitals.