BACKGROUND: Publicly reported performance on quality measures is intended to enable patients to make more informed choices. Despite the growing availability of these reports, patients' use remains limited and disparities exist. Low health literacy and numeracy are two barriers that may contribute to these disparities. Patient navigators have helped patients overcome barriers such as these in other areas, such as cancer care and may prove useful for overcoming barriers to using publicly reported quality data.

METHODS/DESIGN: The goals of this study are: to determine the efficacy of a patient navigator intervention to assist low-income pregnant women in the use of publicly available information about quality of care when choosing a pediatrician; to evaluate the relative importance of factors influencing women's choice of pediatric practices; to evaluate the effect of the intervention on patient engagement in management of their own and their child's health care; and to assess variation in efficacy of the intervention for sub-groups based on parity, age, and race/ethnicity. English speaking women ages 16 to 50 attending a prenatal clinic at a large urban medical center will be randomized to receive an in-person navigator intervention or an informational pamphlet control between 20 to 34 weeks of gestation. The intervention will include in-person guided use of the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners website, which reports pediatric practices' performance on quality measures and patient experience. The primary study outcomes will be the mean scores on a) clinical quality and b) patient experience measures.

DISCUSSION: Successful completion of the study aims will yield important new knowledge about the value of guided website navigation as a strategy to increase the impact of publicly reported quality data and to reduce disparities in use of these data.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT01784575.