HealthGrades Identifies Hospitals With Highest Patient Satisfaction : - Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ Recipients Listed on HealthGrades. com –
HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, today identified those hospitals that rank in the top 15 percent nationally in patient experience and posted the hospitals on www. HealthGrades. com. The ratings are based on patient satisfaction survey results that hospital patients provided as part of a new federal initiative to increase public reporting of hospital performance.
GOLDEN, Colo. (PRWEB) December 8, 2008
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, or HCAHPS, includes 27 questions related to physician and nurse communication, responsiveness, hospital cleanliness and noise levels, medication information, and post-discharge care instructions. It is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients' perspectives of hospital care. HCAHPS is an initiative of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), part of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HealthGrades is providing this award to help consumers choose the best hospital for themselves and their loved ones. Patients want to know about hospitals' patient-experience track records. Recent research by McKinsey & Co. found that non-clinical factors account for 41 percent of a patient's choice of hospital.
"This truly is a distinction generated by patients for patients," said HealthGrades Executive Vice President Sarah Loughran. "HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ recognizes those hospitals that deliver a level of service most highly rated by patients."
To identify the top-performing hospitals, HealthGrades analyzed survey results for the 2,592 hospitals nationwide that participated in the HCAHPS program to determine which hospitals scored highest on the surveys. Hospitals had to meet bed size, survey response size, and clinical-quality thresholds in order to be rated. Information on award recipients and the ratings methodology is now available, free to the public, at www. HealthGrades. com.
About HealthGrades
Health Grades, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGRD) is the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, providing quality ratings, profiles and cost information on the nation's hospitals, physicians, nursing homes and prescription drugs. Millions of patients and many of the nation's largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on HealthGrades' quality ratings, advisory services and decision-support resources. The HealthGrades Network of Web sites, including HealthGrades. com and WrongDiagnosis. com, is a top-ten health property according to ComScore and is the Internet's leading destination for patients choosing providers. More information on the company can be found at http://www. healthgrades. com (http://www. healthgrades. com).
