(Reuters Health) - Medicare quality-of-care data reveal that when a hospital is ...
- Medicare quality-of-care data reveal that when a hospital is acquired by another hospital or hospital system, readmission and mortality rates are not affected but patient satisfaction deteriorates modestly.
“These findings challenge arguments that hospital consolidation, which is known to increase prices, also improves quality,” according to a research team led by Nancy Beaulieu of the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Compared to a control group of 1,986 hospitals that did not change hands, acquired hospitals saw their “patient experience” satisfaction score decline from the equivalent of 50th percentile to 41st.The satisfaction score was based on patient responses to questions about whether they would definitely recommend the hospital, whether the doctor or nurse communicated well, whether they received help when needed, and whether they would rate the hospital as a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale.
“Taken together, these findings provide no evidence of quality improvement attributable to changes in ownership,” the Beaulieu team writes. “Our findings corroborate and expand on previous research on hospital mergers and acquisitions in the 1990s and early 2000s and are consistent with a recent finding that increased concentration of the hospital market has been associated with worsening patient experiences.
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