title: Relationship between patient satisfaction with inpatient care and hospital readmission within 30 days.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether hospitals where patients report higher overall satisfaction with their interactions among the hospital and staff and specifically their experience with the discharge process are more likely to have lower 30-day readmission rates after adjustment for hospital clinical performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Among patients 18 years or older, an observational analysis was conducted using Hospital Compare data on clinical performance, patient satisfaction, and 30-day risk-standardized readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia for the period July 2005 through June 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  A hospital-level multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed for each of 3 clinical conditions to determine the relationship between patient-reported measures of their satisfaction with the hospital stay and staff and the discharge process and 30-day readmission rates, while controlling for clinical performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In samples ranging from 1798 hospitals for acute myocardial infarction to 2562 hospitals for pneumonia, higher hospital-level patient satisfaction scores (overall and for discharge planning) were independently associated with lower 30-day readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] for readmission per interquartile improvement in hospital score, 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-0.99), heart failure (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.95-0.97), and pneumonia (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.99). These improvements were between 1.6 and 4.9 times higher than those for the 3 clinical performance measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher overall patient satisfaction and satisfaction with discharge planning are associated with lower 30-day risk-standardized hospital readmission rates after adjusting for clinical quality. This finding suggests that patient-centered information can have an important role in the evaluation and management of hospital performance.
authors.affiliation: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Boulding
authors.forename: Seth W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Glickman
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Manary
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Schulman
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Staelin
mesh_terms: D000573:American Hospital Association; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006333:Heart Failure; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009203:Myocardial Infarction; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011014:Pneumonia; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States