Private hospital experience rated highly by customers

Medibank’s latest patient experience data shows 98% of private hospitals were rated an 8/10 or higher by Medibank customers, an improvement on the already-high score of 95% of private hospitals for the last survey period.

The latest data from Medibank’s patient experience survey has been released, and customers can access it online as they consider where to seek treatment using their health insurance.

Medibank asks customers who have recently had an acute overnight hospital stay about their experience including 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.

Medibank CEO Craig Drummond said the ongoing conversations about patient experience with Medibank’s valued private hospital partners were having an impact, with 43% of hospitals improving their customer ‘likelihood to recommend’ score.

“This again shows how important strong partnerships are in healthcare, as most private hospitals were already rated very highly by our customers. The latest data shows 98% of private hospitals were rated an 8 out of 10 or above by our customers,” Mr Drummond said.

“Our customers want to know what’s a good hospital for them and what they should be looking for, and the information on our website helps to give them peace of mind about their choice. Going to hospital isn’t an everyday experience and it can often be daunting, so it’s not surprising that people are asking these questions.”

Sharing this data with hospitals and highlighting potential patient concerns has already led to good results, with one hospital group changing the way they employ and roster nurses after hearing customers had concerns about nurse communication and responsiveness.

This hospital group was able to determine that high use of agency staff meant they couldn’t effectively influence patient communication, so they selectively hired more nurses. Over the next 12 months, this hospital group improved their overall patient rating from 11th to 6th against all other groups.

“Customers want to know what their healthcare experience will be like and what it will cost. In the age of transparency, this challenge affects most sectors, but we are playing catch-up in healthcare. We have more information available to us than ever before, but surprisingly little data available on our healthcare system and how it relates to us personally,” Mr Drummond said.

“We all want private healthcare to be more affordable, easier to use, and provide greater patient value. There is much more to do and we must continue to come together to tackle some of these challenges.”

Medibank has now surveyed more than 37,000 customers about their overnight hospital experience since 2016, and will keep refreshing the website to ensure people can access up-to-date information. The patient experience information has had 284,000 page views from more than 49,000 users since going live in November 2018.

Last year, Medibank and ahm paid $5.3 billion in benefits to our customers, supporting more than 1.3 million hospital admissions, 500,000 surgical procedures and 23.8 million extras services.