iHealthBeat: The North Carolina Institute of Medicine has launched a new web site to help uninsured residents find health care services.

Consumers can view information on safety-net services, offering health care at no cost or at a reduced cost. Their mission is to provide free and reduced cost healthcare services to North Carolina residents.

iHealthBeat: The North Carolina Medical Board is considering a plan to post information on medical malpractice lawsuit settlements on its Web site, starting in 2009.

In an effort to improve the quality of care provided to stroke patients, about half of North Carolina's 100 hospitals on a daily basis report monitoring information to a state-funded online database - data that is then used by hospitals to improve care, reports Triangle Business Journal.

The North Carolina Collaborative Stroke Registry collects stroke-related data from 51 of the state's 100 hospitals as a way to monitor the delivery of care to stroke patients.

The North Carolina Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety has updated its online quality report card (NC Hospital Quality Performance Report) to include quality data from 4/1/07 - 6/30/07 and an additional timeframe for trending.

More quality measures will be added to the NC Hospital Quality Performance Report: future measures in years 2007-2008 may include:
- Patient perceptions (i.e., the HCAHP Survey),
- 30-day mortality rates for heart attack and heart failure, and

iHealthBeat reports: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has begun posting prices online for hundreds of services and procedures to increase transparency.

The program allows BCBS members to calculate costs for medical procedures, prescription drugs, office visits and dozens of other outpatient and hospital services. The program will not release data on charges levied by specific doctors.

FierceHealthcare reports that a new law passed by the state legislature in North Carolina will require the state's medical board to make more information available to the public. State medical boards collect some very sensitive information on doctors--and make it available through the National Practitioner Data Bank--but most do not let the public see the data. In North Carolina, however, this will no longer be the case with the passing of this law.

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

Legislation introduced today by Representatives Rick Glazier, Martha Alexander, Lucy Allen, and Verla Insko falls short of what is needed to hold hospitals accountable for preventing patient infections, according to Consumers Union. HB 1738 establishes an advisory commission to develop recommendations for public reporting of hospital infection rates, but provides no guarantee that hospitals will be required to disclose such information.