Beeinflussen bessere Qualitätsinformationen die Krankenhauswahl in Deutschland? / Does Better Quality Information Affect Hospital Choice in Germany?: Eine empirische Untersuchung / An Empirical Analysis

This paper examines, whether well prepared report cards affect hospital choice within Germany. We report three main findings. First: hospitals, which publish their quality data voluntarily, extend their market shares after relative to before publishing the quality data - compared to such hospitals that do not publish their quality data. Second: in the group of the publishing hospitals, hospitals with a higher than average quality increased their market shares after relative to before the adoption of the report card - compared to hospitals with a lower than average quality. Third: hospitals with quality below average are basically chosen by patients living nearby and not by those with a higher travelling distance. Based on these finding decision makers in hospitals have strong incentives (i) to make quality information publicly available and (ii) to keep their quality scores high.