VHI publishes new patient satisfaction ratings of Virginia hospitals

Jul 16 2010

Virginia Health Information (VHI) publishes hospital patient satisfaction ratings at www.vhi.org.  This new report provides patients' views of hospital conditions, care received and how they felt about the doctors and nurses taking care of them.  Hospital care affects millions of Virginians and their families.  Consumers familiar with satisfaction ratings for cars and other products can now compare hospitals close to their home or across Virginia.

Hospitals are rated on overall satisfaction, room cleanliness, managing pain, getting help quickly and other areas of comfort and communication.  

• Statewide, about 2 out of every 3 patients would recommend the hospital they visited.  Overall hospital ratings varied with the highest rated hospital at 79% and the lowest at 43%
• Getting help quickly also varied by hospital from 50-77% of the time.
• Patients said Virginia nurses communicate well 74% of the time and doctors 80% of the time.  These rates were about the same as those across the U.S.
• Hospital staff explained about medications before giving them just 57% of the time.  Some hospitals did much better with explanations 68% of the time.  

Patient satisfaction is an important measure of quality that only the patient or family can provide.  Michael Lundberg, VHI's Executive Director, notes that, "Consumers can use VHI's Hospital Satisfaction ratings along with our cardiac and obstetric care quality reports to compare and choose Virginia hospitals and doctors."  

SOURCE Virginia Health Information