21/02/2012:
Research links online patient feedback and hospital
performance:
Independent research linking patient feedback left on the
NHS Choices website and objective measures of hospital performance has been
published by Imperial College London.
Better-rated hospitals tend to have lower death rates and
lower readmission rates. Hospitals rated as cleaner by patients have also been
found to have lower MRSA rates.
The research is significant because it's the first to
link unsolicited patient ratings and objective measures of quality, signalling
that online patient feedback may be more insightful and valuable than
previously thought.
Please visit the Imperial College London website<http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_14-2-2012-10-30-40>
for further information. The full report has been published in Archives of
Internal Medicine<http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/archinternmed.2011.1675>,
which requires a subscription for full access.
