Measuring Quality

Quality of patient care is multi-dimensional; it encompasses safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency and equity. Because of this, there is no single measure patients can use to decide which hospital is best.

Instead, patients can judge whether a hospital seems to be doing everything it can to deliver the best care possible to its patients—by adopting appropriate technologies; by hiring, training and retaining great staff; by developing and maintaining state-of-the-art and patient-friendly facilities; and by practicing medicine in a way that consistently delivers the best and safest care possible for each patient.

The purpose of this website is to present the public with useful and credible information that demonstrates Massachusetts General Hospital’s commitment to quality and safety.

Throughout the site you will see quality measures reporting Mass General’s performance and how it compares to an external benchmark or an internal goal.

Our dedicated physicians, nurses and staff are always looking for ways to do things better—no matter how well we already perform—and scientific findings constantly present new quality and safety targets to aim for. For most of the measures on this site, you can read about what we are doing to improve and see the impact of those changes.