Does Patient Experience Correlate With Overall Hospital Quality Ratings?

Abstract

Publicly reported patient experience (PE) scores and overall hospital quality and safety ratings (QSR) increasingly influence consumers' healthcare choices and reimbursement, but their correlation remains unclear. We analyzed 2,384 adult US acute care hospitals' public data from Google® (Google), the Leapfrog Group® (Leapfrog), Hospital Compare^® (HC), US News and World Report^® (USN), and Healthgrades^® (HG). We abstracted QSR from three sources (Leapfrog, HC, and USN) and PE from four sources (HC, USN, HG, and Google). We found significant differences in PE scores across QSR categories in Leapfrog and HC (Kruskal-Wallis Test, all P < 0.001) and between USN-ranked and non-ranked institutions (Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.001), indicating better PE in hospitals with higher QSR scores. We performed a logistic regression that showed that some but not all QSR were independently associated with PE. In conclusion, our study adds to the evidence that PE and quality often, though not always, correlate.