M. A. Eid1,2, H. Lands1, D. Soybel2, S. Wong1 1Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, General Surgery, Lebanon, NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA 2White River Junction VA Medical Center, Surgery, White River Junction, VERMONT, USA
Introduction:
Veteran satisfaction of care within the VA is typically very high. Yet recommendation ratings of VA hospitals as measured by HCAHPS are generally lower than non-VA hospitals. Therefore it was our aim to assess Veteran and non-Veteran satisfaction and recommendation scores and then examine whether satisfaction correlates to recommendation.
Methods:
We identified all acute care VA Medical centers (VAs) as our primary analytic cohort. As a comparator group, we also included all acute care academic hospitals (Non-VAs), as designated by the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS). Using data from HCAHPS and SAIL we collated patient satisfaction scores, as well as markers of surgical safety from Hospital Compare. We then analyzed the correlation within VAs and Non-VAs, primarily focusing the relationship between the “would you recommend Hospital Rating” and subdomains of the “Overall Hospital Rating,” as well as a composite score of surgical patient safety.
Results:
A total of 133 VAs and 1116 non-VAs were identified. Among VAs, the “Would you Recommend” hospital rating was significantly and positively correlated with markers of patient satisfaction including care transitions (Pearson’s R=0.59, p<0.05), Nursing communication (Pearson’s R 0.79, p<0.001), MD communication (Pearson’s R=0.56), and percent of PCP wait times less than 30 minutes (Pearson’s R=0.25, p<0.01, Table 1). VA Recommend scores were negatively correlated with factors such as time to ED discharge, and “leaving the ED before being evaluated.” When looking at non-VAs, correlation directions were similar, albeit with stronger associations at almost every metric. While recommend scores correlated strongly to overall hospital ratings for both groups, VA’s had no significant correlation between “would you recommend” and patient safety. However, there was a slight negative correlation between patient safety and “recommend” among Non-VAs.
Conclusion:
Although satisfiers and dissatisfiers of care appear similar between VAs and non-VAs, “would you recommend” is a far weaker marker of patient perceptions of safety and quality.
