Most Patients Struggle with Access to Doctors While in a Hospital, J.D. Power Finds

Redesigned J.D. Power Study Evaluates Patient Views on Overnight Hospital Stays

Patients are not getting timely access to doctors while in the hospital, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Hospital Patient Satisfaction Study,^SM released today. The study provides patient feedback on their satisfaction during a recent overnight hospital stay. Findings show that only 36% of patients say they are always able to speak to a doctor when needed. Those results are down from 43% in 2011, when the study was last conducted.

The study, which has been redesigned, measures patient satisfaction with a recent overnight stay at a hospital. It examines hospital patient satisfaction based on seven experience areas: admission; discharge; doctors; nurses; tests and treatment; facility; and food and beverage.

Food and beverage is another area in which hospitals are falling short of expectations. While 73% of patients can order food and beverage and have it delivered to their room, findings show that food and beverage is the lowest-scoring factor across the hospital stay experience. Drivers of dissatisfaction with food and beverage include the variety of menu choices, quality of food and beverage and timeliness of meals.

While doctors are hard to speak with, patients are more satisfied with their in-person experience with doctors. A majority (90%) of patients say the doctor answered all their questions. However, only 61% of patients say doctors always explained things in a way they could understand.

“Delivering a patient experience that meets or exceeds expectations means focusing on things that matter most to patients,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “Focusing on the details such as a smooth and well-informed admission and discharge process; providing timely access to doctors accompanied by clear explanations; and having high quality food are among the key drivers to patient satisfaction and future loyalty and advocacy.”

Following are some key findings of the redesigned study:

• Doctors and nurses deliver the highest satisfaction: While patients say doctors are hard to find, they are very satisfied with both doctors and nurses. Key metrics for doctors and nurses include responsiveness, concern and knowledge. More than three-fourths (83%) of patients say the nurse always described their care plan for the day and 80% say a nurse manager/leader checked in to see how their hospital experience was going.

• Admission and discharge are important elements of overall journey: More than one-third (34%) of overall patient satisfaction is dependent upon the admission and discharge processes. The aspects of admission and discharge that patients perceive as important include whether the hospital provided information in writing about what symptoms or health problems to watch for after leaving the hospital and how well that information prepared the patient for leaving the hospital. An area of opportunity for hospitals is speeding up the time it takes a patient to reach their room upon admission. Only 51% of patients say it took less than 2 hours to reach their room after arriving at the hospital.

• Patients have mixed level of satisfaction with hospital facility and services: While patients are not satisfied with food and beverage, scores are higher for tests and treatments as well as for the facility and room. A majority (87%) of patients say they were told in advance of when to expect tests and procedures and 85% say scheduled tests and procedures were performed on time. While 68% of patients say their room and bathroom were always kept clean, only 45% say the area around their room was always quiet at night.

The 2023 U.S. Hospital Patient Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 2,885 hospital patients residing in the United States. To qualify, respondents had to have had an overnight stay at a hospital in the past six months. The study was fielded in October-November 2023.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2023183.

About J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company’s business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

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