The Joint Commission has begun posting a wide range of quality data on the Web, including patient-satisfaction survey results and 30-day mortality rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia.
The website allows consumers to look up information on how their peers felt about the care they received at hospitals, drawn from CMS's HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems) surveys. The surveys collect responses to questions in areas such as hospital communication, cleanliness and overall satisfaction.
Not only can patients get information on specific hospitals, they also can receive state and national averages for each question. The website also shows whether a hospital's 30-day mortality rate is better, worse or equal to national averages for the three conditions.
To get more data on the surveys:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)
Related Articles:
Faster hospital discharge increases patient satisfaction [2]
Medicare releases volume, customer satisfaction data [3]
Feds to display hospital satisfaction ratings in newspaper ads [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090120/REG/301209952
[2] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/faster-hospital-discharge-increases-patient-satisfaction/2006-12-21
[3] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/medicare-releases-volume-customer-satisfaction-data/2008-03-31
[4] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/feds-to-display-hospital-satisfaction-ratings-in-newspaper-ads/2008-05-21