Over the next few months, Medicare will start paying attention to hospitals that exemplify a world class institution and that cater to its patients. The reason behind this? Medicare is promising to reimburse hospitals that are given good ratings by patients through the Affordable Care Act. Patients will take a survey to give hospitals a rating, which will determine if hospitals are good enough to receive that bonus payment from Medicare.
So, what exactly are good ratings? Of course, hospitals that are credited as 'good' by patients have up-to-date technology and excellent quality of service, but there's more. Patients will also be critiquing the quality of food, the availability of single, one-patient rooms, and also the quality of renovation-the aesthetics, in those rooms. And already, patients have been giving even the most prestigious hospitals low ratings because their previous expectations were not up to par compared to their most recent visits. This could be because of many reasons (Including, but not limited to): Food is not served on time, the hospital is too noisy at night, or the most excellent magazines are not offered.
Hotel Hospital is here and ready to serve. But seriously, with the economy how it already it is , I don't see how it is possible for hospitals to afford spending their budget on features that won't help their medical service. Medicare, too. We learned that along with Social Security, Medicare is a social welfare program that will be waning in funds over the next decades. Which leads me to wonder, why? Why is Medicare pushing towards this direction, when money for this program will be running out soon? Why should Medicare include things like aesthetics of a hospital for judging who gets the bonus payment? After all, aren't hospitals supposed to serve everyone, not cater to one person's needs?
5 comments:
At first the ideas of reimbursing hospitals by patient satisfaction may seem good, but the more I think about it the more I realize that it can actually hurt some hospitals. Sure, we all have a few complaints about the hospitals that we go to, but patient satisfaction might not be the best way to get rid of unpleasant things. Some hospitals that already cannot afford luxury amenities are in a huge disadvantage. Furthermore, simply hospitals that already have low scores might not be pleased with the subjective ratings either. It would seem like only the hospitals that already have the cool technology can get the bonus more easily even though they don’t need the money as much as other financial needy hospitals. What is shocking is that hospitals will be punished financially for things that they can’t control. In order to get the credit the hospitals have to get a 9 out of 10 grade which already makes it more difficult for most hospitals to achieve. I agree with Vincent that Medicare is already lacking funds and with less money in Medicare there will be money for the new program.
I thought this post was very interesting. I think there could be pros and cons to this "Hotel Hospital," as Vincent puts it. Having patients complete surveys regarding the quality of the hospital they were staying at and awarding the hospitals with the best ratings with bonus payments could act as incentive for hospitals to have tidier facilities, boast better service, cook more appetizing meals, and have the newest technology available to help treat patients. These improvements would prove beneficial for patients and their health and conditions. However, there are cons to this situation as well. Like Vincent said, with funds already diminishing, do hospitals have the money needed to do such renovations? And even if they do, is it in the best interest of the patients? Is buying new chairs and plants for rooms to be more aesthetically appealing an efficient use of money? Or would that money be better spent on more medicine, tools, etc.? While I think this is a good base idea, I do see potential flaws.
The subjectivity of patient surveys is a fair point, but make sure not to overlook some positive aspects. As outlined in the ACA, physicians themselves are rewarded with better payment for better care, and hospitals with poor conditions (e.g. bedsores, injuries from falls) are even penalized. Though the issue of rewarding hospitals for non-health related spending remains, hopefully quality and costs will overall improve and decrease, respectively.
I'm slightly confused on if certain questions have a higher weight to them then others. If the question "did you feel safe with your doctor?" influenced the rating more than "was the room nice?" then this plan would be acceptable. It would allow hospitals that are adequate in the medical field to be rewarded for their efforts.
I find this post interesting. With this economy as bad as it is, do the hospital really have the funds to make the hospitals better? Hospitals are already running low on funds as it is. Even if they get the reimbursment will it really help because they have to send the money already and it will not be that much money. I think it is a really terrible time to do this type of program.
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