Health services research
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Health services research · Jun 1999
Patient assessments of hospital maternity care: a useful tool for consumers?
To examine three issues related to using patient assessments of care as a means to select hospitals and foster consumer choice-specifically, whether patient assessments (1) vary across hospitals, (2) are reproducible over time, and (3) are biased by case-mix differences. ⋯ The findings indicate that patient assessments of care may be a sensitive measure for discriminating among hospitals. In addition, hospital scores are reproducible and not substantially affected by case-mix differences. If our findings regarding patient assessments are generalizable to other patient populations and delivery settings, these measures may be a useful tool for consumers in selecting hospitals or other healthcare providers.