Hospital patients' satisfaction rates now posted online

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Article published Friday, April 4, 2008
CONSUMERS CAN COMPARE
Hospital patients' satisfaction rates now posted online

By JULIE M. McKINNON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A survey found 64 percent of Toledo Hospital patients definitely would recommend the area’s largest hospital to family and friends.

A slightly higher 67 percent of patients at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, the second-largest and Toledo Hospital’s chief rival, would definitely recommend it, the same as the national average and two percentage points higher than Ohio’s average. The highest-rated Lucas County hospital on that satisfaction measure, St. Anne Mercy Hospital, was definitely recommended by 79 percent of patients.

Those are some of the newest tidbits about local hospitals on a federal Web site aimed at helping consumers compare local hospitals. Besides patient satisfaction survey results added last week, the Web site — www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov — also lists quality measures and Medicare payments for certain procedures.

Results for 10 topics comparing patient care experiences come from the first standardized and publicly reported survey. The results are derived from a random sample of patients treated for a wide range of conditions between October, 2006, and June, 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Although hospitals have long used patient satisfaction surveys to determine which areas need improvement, being able to look at standardized results from other facilities helps them know how they compare, said officials from various local hospitals.

(Patient survey results are not yet available for some hospitals, including University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly Medical College of Ohio. A UT spokesman said they should be included on the Web site in the next reporting cycle, starting with results from July, 2007.)

“It drives everybody to be a little bit better,” said Carol Whittaker, president and chief executive of St. Charles Mercy Hospital, which was definitely recommended by 73 percent of patients.

Added Steven Nathanson, Mercy’s regional vice president for strategic planning: “This is a positive step forward in health care, in my mind. The more transparent we can be, the better it is for everybody.”

Patient survey results also validate some information officials already knew, such as problems with noise, said Dr. Bob Reiter, senior vice president for quality and clinical performance improvement at ProMedica Health System. Bay Park Community Hospital had the highest recommendation score among ProMedica’s Lucas County hospitals at 69 percent, 5 points higher than Toledo Hospital.

Yet patient satisfaction already has gone up at Toledo Hospital since it opened a tower featuring private rooms this year, and that should be reflected on the Web site’s next round of survey reports, Dr. Reiter said. Being able to compare other information, such as quality of care for heart attack patients, also is useful as hospitals strive to improve, he said.

“This has really been tied very closely to the way we set our goal-setting for our hospitals,” Dr. Reiter said.

The federal “Hospital Compare” Web site was launched three years ago and continues to update and add information. Consumers can compare such information as how hospitals care for pneumonia patients, as well as what Medicare reimburses them for some procedures.

There are some caveats to keep in mind when comparing data for hospitals, local officials say. Medicare, for example, reimburses teaching hospitals such as UTMC, St. Vincent, and Toledo Hospital more, and they also may get more money because they treat more critical patients, some say.

A quality measure such as whether heart failure patients are given discharge instructions, meanwhile, looks as if just 80 percent received them at St. Luke’s Hospital, which still was better than at Toledo Hospital and UTMC.

The other St. Luke’s patients did receive discharge instructions for their primary concern, but not for the secondary condition of heart failure, said Theresa Konwinski, the hospital’s vice president of patient care services. So St. Luke’s is working to overcome that issue by better identifying patients before discharge with heart failure, a condition doctors may know about but staff does not, Ms. Konwinski said.

Patients with concerns should discuss the Web site’s information with their doctor or the hospitals so they understand how the data is recorded, Ms. Konwinski advised. At St. Luke’s, 71 percent of patients said they would definitely recommend the hospital, according to patient survey results.

The Web site is helpful for teaching consumers about some treatments they should get at any hospital, Ms. Konwinski said. One quality measure reported on the Web site is whether heart attack patients receive an aspirin on arrival, and they should speak up if they don’t, she said.

With the patient satisfaction results, the most recent addition to the Web site, results for Lucas County hospitals generally were lowest and most varied on the topic of whether the area around their rooms was always quiet at night. Affirmative responses ranged from 62 percent at St. Anne’s to 40 percent at Flower Hospital, which 66 percent of patients said they would definitely recommend.

At least 300 completed patient satisfaction surveys are to be collected for each hospital a year, according to Health & Human Services. The surveys are analyzed by an independent contractor, which takes into account differences among hospitals such as patient mix, it said.

Contact Julie M. McKinnon at:jmckinnon@theblade.comor 419-724-6087.

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