Solucient's study of hospitals gives a ranking of top 100 medical centers in the United States, but at $1,095 a copy, the report is primarily marketed to healthcare executives.

That doesn't mean consumers must open their pocketbooks when it comes to finding performance information about hospitals and consumers.

Other companies and government agencies provide hospital ratings for free.

At www.healthgrades.com, you can look up hospital ratings for 27 procedures from appendectomies to valve replacement surgeries. They also have access to Health Grades Inc.'s report on the nation's top 50 hospitals.

The site also has physician reports for a fee.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the Hospital Quality Alliance, has www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov where people can look at how hospitals perform on 21 procedures. These are very specific and include data such as percentage of pneumonia patients given initial antibiotics within four hours after arrival or percentage of heart attack patients given thrombolytic medication within 30 minutes of arrival.

For most people, the data available through the site won't be easy to comprehend but may serve as a starting point in questioning hospitals and physicians about their healthcare.

Rick Wade, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association, cautions against using any one set of data to make decisions and says you should look at a variety of information. For example, data might show a particular hospital does Caesarean sections at a high rate, when the reason for it may be the hospital has the only neonatal intensive care unit in the area and most Caesarean cases are sent to it.

"You have to probe beneath the surface," Wade said. "None of them alone should be used to make a decision about your healthcare."

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.