Relationship between accreditation scores and the public disclosure of accreditation reports: a cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between accreditation scores and the disclosure of accreditation reports. DESIGN A cross sectional study. SETTING Hospitals participating in an accreditation programme in Japan. PARTICIPANTS 547 of the 817 hospitals accredited by the Japan Council for Quality Health Care (JCQHC) by January 2003. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Data on participation in public disclosure of accreditation reports through the JCQHC website were obtained from the JCQHC database. Comments on the disclosure were obtained using a questionnaire based survey. RESULTS A total of 508 (93%) of the participating hospitals disclosed their accreditation reports on the JCQHC website. Public hospitals were significantly more committed to public disclosure than private hospitals, and larger hospitals were significantly more likely to participate in public disclosure than smaller hospitals. Accreditation scores were positively related to the public disclosure of hospital accreditation reports. Scores for patient focused care and efforts to meet community needs were significantly higher in actively disclosing hospitals than in non-disclosing hospitals. Among the large hospitals, scores for safety management were significantly higher in hospitals advocating disclosure than in non-disclosing hospitals. CONCLUSIONS There was a positive correlation between accreditation scores and public disclosure. Our results suggest that the public disclosure of accreditation reports should be encouraged to improve public accountability and the quality of care. Future studies should investigate the interaction between public disclosure, processes and outcomes.