“You can put your clothes back on,” the doctor says as he walks out. Before you know it, he’s back and you’re still hopping around the cold floor, aiming for your pant leg and with your sweater on backward. There’s no time for embarrassment, because the doctor declares that you need surgery. You don’t remember finishing dressing or half of what the doctor told you, and now it’s too late to ask, “Can you run that by me again?”

If you can relate to this scenario, here’s something you can do. Get off the couch and onto the internet, type “hospital compare” in your web search field, and you’ll find a web site of the same name , Hospital Compare (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov ), with quality performance information regarding selected clinical topics from more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals. The information on this web site is intended to help you when you talk with your health care provider and to enable you to make informed decisions.

Although the web site is provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Hospital Compare was created through the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) to provide credible information to the public regarding the quality of care in hospitals and to encourage efforts for improvement.

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