Most Patients Satisfied With Hospital Care but Many Rate Communication, Pain Control Low, Study Shows

A majority of patients are satisfied with the care they receive during a hospital stay but many are unsatisfied with communication and pain control, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, USA Today reports. Authors examined data collected by the federal government in an ongoing patient survey at all hospitals that receive Medicare payments. In the study's first year, which ended Sept. 30, about 40% of eligible hospitals did not report their data.

Patients in the study, which was sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, rated six areas on a scale of zero to 10, including communication by physicians, nurses, and about medications and the quality of nursing services, discharge information and pain management. Overall, 63% of respondents rated the quality of their care a nine or 10 and 26% rated it a seven or eight. The study found that about one-third of patients gave low scores for pain control and one-fifth gave low scores for discharge instructions. Researchers found that hospitals that ranked well on standard measures of quality had higher patient ratings. The study also linked a high nurses-to-patient ratio with higher patient satisfaction. In addition, the study found that teaching hospitals were rated higher than non-teaching hospitals, and not-for-profit hospitals were rated higher than for-profit facilities.

Lead author Ashish Jha, an assistant professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, "These data really represent a sea change," adding, "We've been talking about [health care] quality for 20 years, but patients' experiences have not been part of the discussion." Anne-Marie Audet, vice president for quality improvement and efficiency at CWF, said the negative responses to pain control and communication show that in those areas "no one is doing ... great" (Rubin, USA Today, 10/29).

The study is available online.