Washington, D.C., October 9, 2003 - AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. issued the following statement today on the progress of the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative:

"As the national organization representing the country's medical schools and major teaching hospitals—responsible for educating and training new generations of physicians—the AAMC is proud to be a collaborative partner in this groundbreaking initiative to measure and improve the quality of care in our nation's hospitals.

Since the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative was launched last December, we have made good progress in creating this unique database and we have garnered the momentum needed to complete the significant amount of work that remains. Over 1,700 hospitals representing all 50 states have agreed to report data - consistently and uniformly - for the initiative's ten quality measures.

The AAMC, along with the other hospital organizations represented in this effort, will continue to strongly encourage our members to participate fully in this initiative. Our goal is for every eligible hospital to report complete data for all ten of the established clinical measures.

Currently, 41 percent of eligible AAMC Council of Teaching Hospital member institutions have pledged to participate in the initiative.

The next release of compiled data for this effort is scheduled for February. Data from more than 1,000 hospitals have already been submitted for inclusion in this second release.

Importantly, this data will contribute to a consumer-friendly Web site for patients and their families. Research is currently underway to determine how best to communicate this technical clinical information to the general public.

Clearly, we have learned much in the past 10 months and will work to improve and refine our process to make this initiative successful. The AAMC remains dedicated to providing this service to the public and demonstrating our accountability to improving the quality of care for our patients."

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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