HCF releases annual survey of members’ hospital experience

Sydney, 27 July 2014 - As part of its commitment to greater transparency in the delivery of health and medical services, Australia’s largest not-for-profit health insurer, HCF, has today released results of its latest survey of the hospital experiences of more than 11,000 of its members.

Continuing a practice of annual patient satisfaction surveying that started in 1994, HCF’s updated survey focussed on the top 100 hospitals by volume (84 – private; 16 – public) that HCF members attend each year. The primary aim of the survey is to drive improvements in hospital quality via member feedback.

This year the survey produced the following key findings:

Hospital recommendation scores: the 11,000+ responses from HCF members rated from 0 to 10 on how likely they would be to recommend the hospital to a friend or colleague based on their experiences.

• The average score for all 100 hospitals was 8.7 out of 10 (Range: 6.5 to 9.7)
• The average score for the 84 private hospitals was 8.8 out of 10 (7.9 to 9.7)
• The average score for the 16 public hospitals was 7.7 out of 10 (6.5 to 9.2)
• The 73 hospitals in New South Wales/ACT had an average score of 8.6 (6.5 to 9.5)
• The 13 hospitals surveyed in Queensland had an average score of 8.9 (7.9 to 9.7)
• The 11 hospitals in Victoria had an average score of 8.7 (8.1 to 9.1)

Medical team recommendation scores: the same 11,000 HCF members also responded on the likelihood of their recommending the medical team that treated them to a friend or a colleague based on their experiences.

• The average recommendation score was 9.0 out of 10 (Range: 7.5 to 9.6)

Mater Women’s and Children’s Private Health Services (Brisbane), The Sydney Clinic for Gastrointestinal Diseases, and John Flynn Private Hospital ranked in the Top 5 on both measures (See attached for the Top 10 highest scoring hospitals and medical teams).

HCF Medical Director, Dr Andrew Cottrill, said: “Transparency and accountability are two major tenets that guide HCF’s strategy. By investing in dedicated member surveys we can monitor the effectiveness of publishing quality indicators, and see the impact this has on driving improvements in hospital experiences for our membership. To that end all 100 hospitals that are surveyed receive a dedicated report that benchmarks their performance.” Dr Cottrill said.

Members were also asked to rate HCF’s role in their most recent hospital stay. On average members scored HCF at 9.0 out of 10 (Range: 8.1 to 9.5) when asked whether they were likely to recommend HCF to a friend or colleague.

HCF Hospital Patient Experience Survey: Summary of results for 2013

Hospital recommendation – the 11,000+ responses from HCF members rated from 0 to 10 how likely they would be to recommend the hospital to a friend or colleague.

The top 10 highest scoring hospitals

Medical team recommendation - the same 11,000 HCF members also responded on the likelihood of them recommending the the medical team that treated them to a friend or a colleague.

The top 10 highest scoring medical teams by hospital