Patients are more likely to give five-star ratings for patient experience to hospitals that offer fewer services, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
For the study, researchers examined CMS' 2014 patient experience ratings for 2,798 hospitals nationwide.
Of these hospitals, 150 received a five-star rating. These hospitals were 84 to 92 percent less likely to offer emergency services, intensive care, cardiology or neurology, reports Reuters.
These findings suggest that patients should not solely rely on five-star ratings when deciding where to seek care.
"This is especially true for patients with multiple medical problems and chronic illness. They are much less likely to receive comprehensive services when admitted," Zishan Siddiqui, MD, lead study author and researcher at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, told Reuters. "Hospital patient experience rating systems in general should be just one of many hospital metrics patients should look at when selecting hospitals."
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