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The federal quality-care movement has focused primarily on objective quality: how well hospitals do their job. But subjective quality also is of concern to the regulatory bodies: How satisfied are U.S. patients with their hospital experiences?
Almost 2500 U.S. hospitals reported patient-satisfaction survey results (collected in 2006–2007) to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Compared with 1600 hospitals that did not report such data, reporting hospitals were more likely to be large, private, urban, and teaching institutions. Hospitals in the Northeast were overrepresented among responders; public hospitals were underrepresented. All adult patients who were admitted for nonpsychiatric diagnoses were eligible to complete su…