title: Across US Hospitals, Black Patients Report Comparable Or Better Experiences Than White Patients.
abstract: Patient-reported experience is a critical part of measuring health care quality. There are limited data on racial differences in patient experience. Using patient-level data for 2009-10 from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), we compared blacks' and whites' responses on measures of overall hospital rating, communication, clinical processes, and hospital environment. In unadjusted results, there were no substantive differences between blacks' and whites' ratings of hospitals. Blacks were less likely to recommend hospitals but reported more positive experiences, compared to whites. Higher educational attainment and self-reported worse health status were associated with more negative evaluations in both races. Additionally, blacks rated minority-serving hospitals worse than other hospitals on all HCAHPS measures. Taken together, there were surprisingly few meaningful differences in patient experience between blacks and whites across US hospitals. Although blacks tend to receive care at worse-performing hospitals, compared to whites, within any given hospital black patients tend to report better experience than whites do.
authors: José F. Figueroa is a physician in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: José F
authors: JF
authors: Figueroa
authors: Jie Zheng is a senior statistician at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Zheng
authors: E. John Orav is an associate professor of biostatistics at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
authors: E John
authors: EJ
authors: Orav
authors: Ashish K. Jha (ajha@hsph.harvard.edu) is a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
authors: Ashish K
authors: AK
authors: Jha
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D000071066:Patient Reported Outcome Measures; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000208:ethnology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Determinants Of Health; Disparities; Health Reform; Minority Health; Quality Of Care