JAMA surgery
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Multicenter Study
Relationship Between Hospital Performance on a Patient Satisfaction Survey and Surgical Quality.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services include patient experience as a core component of its Value-Based Purchasing program, which ties financial incentives to hospital performance on a range of quality measures. However, it remains unclear whether patient satisfaction is an accurate marker of high-quality surgical care. ⋯ Using a national sample of hospitals, we demonstrated a significant association between patient satisfaction scores and several objective measures of surgical quality. Our findings suggest that payment policies that incentivize better patient experience do not require hospitals to sacrifice performance on other quality measures.
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Trauma is the leading cause of death among US children. Whether pediatric trauma centers (PTCs), mixed trauma centers (MTCs), or adult trauma centers (ATCs) offer a survival benefit compared with one another when treating injured children is controversial. Ascertaining the optimal care environment will better inform quality improvement initiatives and accreditation standards. ⋯ Injured children treated at ATCs and MTCs had higher in-hospital mortality compared with those treated at PTCs. This association was most evident in younger children and remained significant in severely injured children. Quality improvement initiatives geared toward ATCs and MTCs are required to provide optimal care to injured children.