Hospital ratings may aid patients' choices

Rather than simply relying on advice from family and friends, Utahns can now examine overall patient satisfaction ratings for local hospitals before choosing where to spend their health-care dollars.

While Utah hospitals overall rated higher than the national average on seven of 10 reported measures, statistics provided by the 2009 Hospital Consumer Satisfaction Report show wide discrepancies among hospitals in how patients viewed their experiences with communication, cleanliness and other factors.

The findings — available online at health.utah.gov/myhealthcare — show that overall, about 73 percent of respondents would recommend their hospital to family and friends, but some measures showed discrepancies of up to 50 percent among the 34 Utah hospitals included in the survey.

For example, patients were asked about how they would rate each hospital overall. At Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, 46 percent of patients gave it a 9 or 10 on a scale of 10, but 81 percent of patients at Sevier Valley Medical Center in Richfield rated that facility a 9 or 10.

The survey used to compile the data on the Web site included 27 questions patients were asked about their hospital visit, on topics like nurse and doctor communication; responsiveness of hospital staff; cleanliness of the room; noise levels; pain management; information provided about medications; overall rating of the hospital and whether the patient would recommend the hospital to others.

Data were collected from July 2007 to June 2008, and officials caution that the hospitals surveyed differ in some important ways, including size, the type and complexity of care provided, and the way surveys were given to patients.

"Therefore, differences between hospitals may represent differences in the way they treated patients, or differences in factors that had nothing to do with patient care," the report said.

The questions, known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, has been recognized as the "first standardized survey instrument providing an 'apples to apples' comparison of care received in the hospital setting," according to officials with the Utah Department of Health, who released the information in conjunction with the state's Health Data Committee.