Patient satisfaction scores are a relatively new metric to determine hospitals' quality of care, but an op-ed featured in the New York Times questions the correlation between the two and says the growing focus on satisfaction is "worrisomely off the mark."
Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse and author, said a large portion of hospital care is invasive, painful and at times dehumanizing. Surgeries, pain from incisions and chemotherapy are just a few of the unpleasant experiences she mentioned, suggesting physical pain and emotional suffering "tend to be inseparable from standard care," according to the op-ed.
Patient satisfaction scores tend to ignore this fact and, as a result, place pressure on hospitals and health systems to do things they can't, according to the op-ed. "Hospitals are not hotels, and although hospital patients may in some ways be informed consumers, they're predominantly sick, needy people, depending on us, the nurses and doctors, to get them through a very tough physical time," Ms. Brown wrote in the op-ed.
To illustrate her point, she recalled her experience with a patient in his 80s who had blood cancer. A physician told the patient he was too old to tolerate standard chemotherapy.
"The final questions on the survey ask patients to rate the hospital on a scale from worst to best, and whether they would recommend the hospital to family and friends," Ms. Brown wrote. "How would my octogenarian patient have answered? A physician in our hospital had just told him that he would die sooner than expected. Did that make us the best hospital he'd ever been in, or the worst?"
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Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse and author, said a large portion of hospital care is invasive, painful and at times dehumanizing. Surgeries, pain from incisions and chemotherapy are just a few of the unpleasant experiences she mentioned, suggesting physical pain and emotional suffering "tend to be inseparable from standard care," according to the op-ed.
Patient satisfaction scores tend to ignore this fact and, as a result, place pressure on hospitals and health systems to do things they can't, according to the op-ed. "Hospitals are not hotels, and although hospital patients may in some ways be informed consumers, they're predominantly sick, needy people, depending on us, the nurses and doctors, to get them through a very tough physical time," Ms. Brown wrote in the op-ed.
To illustrate her point, she recalled her experience with a patient in his 80s who had blood cancer. A physician told the patient he was too old to tolerate standard chemotherapy.
"The final questions on the survey ask patients to rate the hospital on a scale from worst to best, and whether they would recommend the hospital to family and friends," Ms. Brown wrote. "How would my octogenarian patient have answered? A physician in our hospital had just told him that he would die sooner than expected. Did that make us the best hospital he'd ever been in, or the worst?"
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