USE OF QUALITY INFORMATION FOR CONSUMER AND PURCHASER DECISION-MAKING

Although little consumer knowledge of products and services was shown in the studies
conducted over fifty years ago, this knowledge and especially how the consumers are using
it has been increasing at a significant pace. Several surveys have been conducted over the
several years just to determine consumer awareness. Over the past few years ,this national
surveys under the sponsorship of the AHRQ and the Kaiser Family Foundation have shown
that quite a moderate number of the American people which was approximately 35 percent
thirteen years ago said that there was excellent information on the plans and the providers
and some people were actually using the quality information to make better choices.
Robinson and Brodie in 1997 both stated that the percentage of the people that are putting
into use this quality information obtained was increasing as time goes by.This statement
was agreed on by the Kaiser in 2000 and later by the AHRQ in 2004.There was a significant
increase in the number of respondents who were able to see and compare the quality
information on health plans from 23 to 28 percent from 2000 to 2004,such a significant
increase. In the year 1996,only 15 percent according to statistics were able to use any
quality information to make health decisions while in 2004 ,19 percent were able to see the
quality information and even able to make decisions.

The rate of understanding of any measures will always increase when a consumer sees
quality information but this will also vary with the type of measures employed. Only 23
percent of the people who saw quality information but did not put it use said that the
information concerning hospitals was difficult to fathom and only 10 percent said that the
information about health plans was actually difficult to understand this was a survey done
by both Kaiser and AHRQ in 2004.

In targeted settings especially where certain consumers or groups of consumers with shared
set of choices are just selected or chosen to disseminate quality information, there is
increased awareness ,comprehension and even higher rates of using the information. A
study of the Minneapolis’ employees in the St.Paul area .The study involved giving
employees quality report card with some information such as the ability to visit physicians,
the time they always have to wait, the satisfaction ratings which involved different selected
delivery setups of a purchasing organisation that buys health care services .In the study only
half of the employees remembered seeing the card and of that half between half to two
thirds stated that it was a helpful tool that assisted in making decisions as indicated by
Schultz et al in 2001.This study was also done in Denver and St. Louis where the results
obtained are as follows 47 percent of employees in a certain cooperative in Denver and 55
percent of employees in large company remember seeing a report card about plans of
there health. Out of those two percentages, 81 percent of the people in Denver and 83
percent of the people in St. Louis found the report helpful, all this statistics were done by
Fowles et al in 2002.
Nonetheless, these targeted studies were not that efficient since the quality of information
disseminated was quite limited or varied on the actual decision making.The difference in
effects depended on the traits of the targeted consumers ,which has been tested and
proven by many people.In 1998,Knutson et al was able to find out that giving health plan
report cards to Minnesota employees about the satisfaction ratings did not actually have
effects on their plan choices ,rates of switching plans or their willingness and ability to pay
higher for quality services. Beaulieu in 2002 was able to conclude that the disseminating of
cards that contained patient satisfaction ratings and Hedis scores had a relatively small but
quite an effect on the choices of health plans. Harris also made a research in a more
experimental setting with assumed choices and was able to conclude that the large variation
in quality must be there so that consumers will favour good performance over provider
availability in health plans.

Christianson,Feldman and Schultz and Schulz et al found that there was no uniformity in
effects while disseminating report cards among the subgroups.The effects will vary due to
several reasons that include the consumers’ own characteristics ,their level of of education
and the extent to which they rely on they previous health care to make choices,Research
bodies have been developed just to monitor the barriers or inhibitors to and the facilitators
of consumer consciousness, understanding and ability to use quality information.

In this current era ,consumers have been overwhelmed with both excessive data and advice,
which makes it possible for a certain quality information to get lost. Also large funds are
required for big media campaigns which becomes a problem even for those large
Humanitarian organisations or the government since it will be difficult to sponsor
competitive