Health care report cards: what about consumers' perspectives?

Though the report card style is seen by many as a way to create better-informed consumers, very little is actually known about how consumers will respond to health care report cards. Report cards are only one of many factors that influence health care decision making. Much consumer-oriented effort and fine-tuning will be required to make report cards effective. Using the approach called "social marketing" as a framework, specific examples are used to outline some ideas for more intensive pursuit of consumers' perspectives in the design and distribution of report cards.