Hospital Compare Patient Satisfaction Scores

Information about patients' view of their hospital care is available for consumers on the Hospital Quality Alliance's (HQA) public Web site, Hospital Compare (www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov). These new data, which allow for comparisons among hospitals, reflect patients' insights about key aspects of hospital care, regardless of their condition or diagnosis.

Known as HCAHPS (for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems), this new information joins existing data on Hospital Compare which allows consumers to see how often hospitals provide important treatments for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical patients. The information also allows people to find out how heart attack and heart failure patients fared 30 days after being admitted to a hospital, including time spent outside the hospital after being discharged. The HCAHPS data were collected through surveys given to patients after they left the hospital and provide a nationally standardized look at routine hospital care.

The new patient survey includes 17 questions which will be grouped into ten categories (see table below).

H-CAHPS Official Scores Released by CMS

www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov

	Central Iowa Hospitals		State and National Hospitals
CATEGORIES	Iowa Methodist (N>300)	Iowa Lutheran (N>300)	Iowa Average	National Average
Overall rating of this hospital (% 9-10 rating)	73%	75%	74%	68%
Willingness to recommend this hospital (% Definitely Recommend)	78%	78%	74%	70%
Communication with nurses (% Always)	75%	76%	80%	76%
Communication with doctors (% Always)	78%	77%	83%	80%
Responsiveness of hospital staff (% Always)	58%	61%	68%	64%
Pain management (% Always)	69%	67%	71%	70%
Communication about medication (% Always)	59%	61%	64%	61%
Cleanliness of hospital environment (% Always)	74%	74%	78%	72%
Quietness of hospital environment (% Always)	61%	56%	62%	58%
Discharge information provided (% Yes)	82%	83%	85%	82%

Data from the 3,832 hospitals that have 12 months of information will appear on the Hospital Compare Web site. This information will be updated quarterly and data from most of the nation's hospitals will appear by the end of the year.

The HQA is a national public-private collaboration of hospital groups, consumer representatives, physician and nursing organizations, employers and payers, oversight organizations and government agencies dedicated to making useful and understandable information about hospital quality available to the public and to helping hospitals use the information in their quality improvement efforts. The addition of these new data reflects the HQA's continuing commitment, since 2002, to publicly report hospital quality of care information to help patients and consumers make more informed decisions about hospital care.

About Hospital Compare

Hospital Compare is the result of the cooperation of members of the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), a landmark public-private partnership of hospitals, government agencies, quality experts, purchasers, consumer groups and other health care organizations. These organizations have joined together to develop a shared national strategy for hospital quality measurement and are committed to advancing quality of care. The HQA created the site - www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov - to provide quality of care information to the public in a consistent, unified way. For more information about the HQA and its partners, please visit www.hospitalqualityalliance.org.