Patient satisfaction increases in Ohio hospitals

If Ohio hospitals were a restaurant, they would get three-and-a-half stars for client satisfaction.

A new way of ranking hospitals' patient satisfaction scores on Medicare's Hospital Compare website allows patients to review how hospitals performed on a five-star ranking, much like the current way nursing homes are graded.

Across the United States, only 251 hospitals received five stars, the highest score, and 15 of those were in Ohio, according to U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data released Thursday.

OhioHealth's Marion General Hospital received three stars for its overall patient satisfaction score.

Eighty percent of Ohio hospitals received either a 3- or 4-star review on their overall patient satisfaction. None received the worst score of 1 star. Only 3 percent of hospitals nationwide, 101 facilities, received 1 star.

"The 5-star system is just another way for CMS to present the same information in a way the public can better understand. It's the system we are all used to when making comparisons, and health care shouldn't be any different," said Elisabeth Brand, director of marketing and public relations at Magruder Hospital in Port Clinton.

However, some hospital officials fear patients won't dig into the data behind why hospitals scored higher or lower.

"The star system may be easier for the public to understand at a glance, but it can easily oversimplify the quality results that can matter most to patients," said Roxanne Potter, coordinator of infection prevention and quality management for Coshocton Hospital, adding that the difference between 4 and 5 stars might be a percentage point.

The stars also are based on patient surveys that are several months old. The most recent data available include feedback from July 2013 to June 2014, said Pam Jensen, president of ProMedica's Memorial Hospital in Fremont.

Despite those limits, patient surveys show Ohioans are becoming more satisfied with their hospitals. Nurses are more helpful, rooms are more quiet and patients are better informed on follow-up care than they were five years ago, according to Medicare data collected on patient satisfaction.

About 72 percent of Ohio patients said they would definitely recommend the hospital where they stayed to others, according to surveys from mid-2013 to mid-2014. That is up from 67 percent five years ago. Ohio hospitals' lowest scores were for not keeping rooms quiet at night.

The information, compiled from surveys sent to patients after they leave, was first collected in 2007 and has grown in importance through the years. Medicare now rewards or penalizes certain hospitals based on their performance on patient satisfaction measures.

The categories include: whether patients understood their care when they left the hospital, whether medications were properly explained to them, whether their room was quiet and clean, whether their nurses and doctors were communicated well and whether their pain was well controlled.

OhioHealth Marion General Hospital has improved its scores on always informing patients about medication they are taking and making sure rooms are clean.

However, just 62 percent of patients said they would definitely recommend the hospital, which is lower than the state and national average, according to analysis of Medicare survey data.

To improve the number of people who would recommend the hospital, hospital workers are trying to communicate better about all the services provided at the local hospital from neurology and orthopedic care to oncology care, said Joy Bischoff, vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer for OhioHealth Marion General Hospital.

"We continually strive to provide our patients with excellent service," Bischoff said. "We trend and review survey responses from our patients to keep a pulse on patients' perceptions of what matters most to them in regards to their care."

All OhioHealth hospitals are focusing on visiting patients every hour, using white boards to communicate information about patients' health and recovery, and improving bedside reporting, said Nancy Riggs, system vice president of service excellence for OhioHealth.

"We've always put the patient experience and satisfaction as a priority, long before we were required to publicly report it," Riggs said.

In survey data released Thursday, which ranged from July 2013 to June 2014:

•78 percent of patients said doctors always communicated well, down from 80 percent in 2009. The state average was 80.8 percent, up from 78 percent five years ago.

•72 percent of patients said their pain was always well-controlled, down from 76 percent in 2009. The state average was 71.8 percent, up from 68.3 percent five years ago.

•75 percent of patients said their room and bathroom were always clean, up from 71 percent in 2009. The state average was 75.2 percent, up from 69.9 percent five years ago.

•54 percent of patients said the area around their room was always quiet at night, the same as in 2009. The state average was 59.7 percent, up from 52 percent five years ago.

•87 percent of patients said they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home, up slightly from 86 percent in 2009. The state average was 87.7 percent, up from 81.9 percent five years ago.

•62 percent of patients said they would definitely recommend the hospital, down from 65 percent in 2009. The state average was 71.9 percent, up from 67.6 percent five years ago.

jbalmert@gannett.com

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Twitter: @jbalmert