[Public reporting--forms and effects].

Since 2004 hospitals in Germany publish structured report cards bi-yearly. Content and scope of these mandatory public reports are still under discussion. Therefore we provide an up to date overview on forms and effects of public reports. By enabling transparency, comparative reports on the quality of health care aim at supporting patients to choose better performing health care providers and motivating health care providers to enhance quality improvement activities. Internationally existing public reports range from reports on national health systems on the whole to reports on the quality of particular procedures of individual health care providers. Contrary to the multitude of public reports, the evidence on the effects of public reporting remains scant. The few existing studies show that hospitals react on the public reports by some quality improvements. However, regarding the selection of providers and the quality of care they only show inconsistent effects of public reporting. Moreover, unsolved methodical problems of pubic reporting and potentially unintended consequences have to be considered. Therefore the question remains whether the expected effects in terms of quality improvements outbalance the unintended consequences in the long run and if the investments in public reporting will be paid off. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart, New York.