Consumer Reports launches patient satisfaction ratings on hospital comparison Web site

Health IT Strategist reports on launch of patient-satisfaction ratings by Consumer Reports on its Web site comparing hospitals across the country.
Using data from the federal Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, or HCAHPS, Consumer Reports provides its own ranking system represented by symbols for hospitals. Subscribers can search facilities in a state to see how they scored on HCAHPS information. In addition, the reports tie satisfaction scores to how aggressively a hospital treats an illness—a ranking system based on data from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care—which Consumer Reports began to provide last year.