It's always a good thing when customers of any product or service can receive objective information to make the best and most informed decision about purchasing a certain product or service. How about medical care in hospitals?

I don't think I've ever seen a "scorecard" that measured response times, survival rates and other data that were measured objectively between hospitals. Why is that? that kid of data is available when buying car -- why not when signing papers for admittance into a hospital?

The U.S. Gov't has started something that may lead to that, as mortality data on the thousands of hospitals in the U.S. were made public for the first time late last week. Why? Well, the information will end up giving a great deal of insight into which hospitals provide the best care. Now, that's some useful information form the government (for a change).

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