Findings from a new study by Healthcare Research and Analytics (HRA) show that key components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 have forced hospitals to reassess, realign, and re-focus efforts and processes to improve both quality and patient satisfaction. Of primary concern for hospitals is their performance under the Patient Experience of Care Measures provision of Value-Based Purchasing – a reimbursement scheme under Healthcare Reform that rewards and penalizes hospitals based on performance across eight patient satisfaction and 12 key quality measures. Study respondents acknowledge that while hospitals can enact hard measures to monitor and enhance quality performance, patient satisfaction is subjective and often outside of the control of the hospital. Further, over half of the Hospitalists surveyed by HRA contend that gauging patient satisfaction on a national basis reflects an unfair benchmark, given the inherent differences in patient populations across different geographies. Directors of Pharmacy and Hospital Administrators interviewed share a similar perspective.
HRA’s newest study, Healthcare Reform in the Hospital – Implications for the Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Medical Device Industries, explores the key components of Healthcare Reform as they impact the hospital environment – from Value-Based Purchasing tenets to bundled Medicare payment pilots to ACO formation and more. The report provides a primer on the key elements of Reform and pairs extensive desk research with primary qualitative and quantitative primary research among Directors of Pharmacy, Hospitalists, and Administrators from large hospitals and systems across the United States. It also includes perspectives from key opinion leaders (KOLs) representing industry, academia, and major healthcare consultancies. The research covers a variety of topics including quality measures/guidelines, efforts to promote patient satisfaction, efforts to reduce excess readmissions, infection control measures, the overall importance of Healthcare Reform to hospital policy decision-making, as well as unmet needs across hospitals in light of Healthcare Reform.