Medibank to publish patient feedback on hospitals for the first time
Our customers have been asking us a lot of questions about what’s a good hospital for them and what should they be looking for. Going to hospital isn’t an everyday experience and it can often be daunting, so it’s not surprising speaking with customers they want greater transparency and help navigating the healthcare system.
Since 2016 we have been surveying our customers that had an overnight hospital stay so we can have a better understanding about what’s important to them.
More than 30,000 Medibank customers have responded to our survey (patient reported experience (PREMs) survey) and next month, we’ll publish this data on our website for the first time, for anyone to look at and compare hospitals.
You’ll be able to see information about what people thought of their hospital experience - how staff interacted with them, how clearly they received advice about their medicine, their care while they were in hospital, the quietness and cleanliness of the hospital and how they were discharged when going home.
We’ve been working with private hospital groups and with the University of Melbourne to ensure the data and methodology is reflective of people’s experience without any influence from Medibank.
Sharing this data with hospitals and highlighting patients concerns that they were previously unaware of has already led to good results, with one hospital adding more cleaning staff after hearing customers say they had some concerns about the cleanliness of their rooms.
It’s also a great example of the healthcare system working collaboratively. I’m encouraged by the feedback we’ve had from hospitals and that the data shows the private hospital sector has been doing a good job – with 95 per cent of our customers giving their experience in a private hospital an 8 out of 10 or above, while for public hospitals the rate was 65 per cent.
The release of this information is part of our commitment to increasing transparency around health insurance and the healthcare system. It follows the launch earlier this year of our Procedure Cost Estimator and the addition of out-of-pocket information for more than 14,000 specialists to our Find a Provider tool in August.
With more Australians going to hospital than ever before, we want to provide peace of mind and help them make the right choices for themselves and their loved ones by being more informed.
