Table 6.

Responses to the open-ended question about information presentation.

Information presentation feature	Responses, n
Table without symbols	39 (38 incomprehensible)
Table with symbols	Helpful green symbol: n=59; table: n=36 (35 incomprehensible)
Bar chart without symbols	25 (23 incomprehensible)
Bar chart with symbols	Symbol helpful: n=79; bar chart (incomprehensible): n=39; bar chart (helpful): n=24
Bar chart with traffic light symbols	Bar chart: n=50 (30 incomprehensible, 20 helpful); symbol: n=30 (28 helpful)
Bar chart with thumb symbols	Helpful thumb: n=51; bar chart (incomprehensible): n=9; bar chart (helpful): n=4
Providers ranked by performance	Ranking (helpful): n=3
Explicit statement about whether higher or lower values indicate better performance	Higher values as a reason for hospital choice: n=67
No statement about scale direction, but range for good quality presented	—
Incomplete data (N/A labels)	Complaints about incomplete or missing data: n=59