The Health Plans or Providers That Are Being Rated

Your report can provide contact and descriptive information about each of the organizations being rated in the report.

Contact Information

For each organization, list:

• Common business names.
• Telephone number.
• Web site URL.
• Physical address.

Contact information permits the user to get further information about plans or providers of particular interest. An address is important for those users who want to visit a facility ahead of time. This is extremely common for people choosing a nursing home, since it will be the actual residence of the patient. It may also be of interest to hospital patients, especially those seeking special units such as maternity or pediatrics.

Descriptive Information on Individual Organizations

Descriptive information is often a highly useful supplement to quality ratings. To learn about descriptive measures that speak to the quality of different types of providers, go to Measures of Quality for Different Health Care Settings.

Other descriptive information may be viewed as less indicative of quality but nevertheless relevant to someone making a decision. This includes information on:

• Location.
• Access to public transportation.
• Hours of operation.
• Whether clinicians and staff speak languages other than English.

Descriptive Information on Organization Types

Some kinds of services and facilities are less familiar to the public than others. Examples include home health, hospice, and renal dialysis facilities. Sponsors of reports that focus on these types of providers should offer consumers additional information about:

• What these facilities do.
• What services they provide and to whom.
• What kind of staff work for them.
• How they are financed.