On Friday, the US Health and Human Services Department unveiled a new website that allows people to compare hospital care quality and patient satisfaction.

Information in the comparison includes hospital process of care measures, outcome of care measures where available, survey of patient's hospital experience and Medicare payment and volume for selected medical conditions or surgical procedures.

This site is an important step forward in forcing hospitals to compete, but in a competitive health care environment this type of comparison system would have done a long time ago by Consumer Reports or some other private company.