▲ A university hospital in Seoul
Patients who have been hospitalized at general hospitals or larger medical institutions gave the lowest scores to "emotional support," such as comfort and empathy from medical staff, among various hospital services.
The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) announced today (July 31) that the overall comprehensive score averaged 87.54 in its 5th Patient Experience Survey, which was conducted from August to December of last year targeting 130,306 adult discharged patients across 376 medical institutions with general hospital status or higher.
All seven evaluated categories scored above 80 points.
By category, general evaluation scored 89.31 points, followed by nurses at 88.99 points, patient safety and hospital environment at 88.86 points, guarantee of patient rights at 87.70 points, doctors at 86.89 points, medication and treatment processes at 86.35 points, and emotional support at 82.37 points.
While scores increased across all categories compared to the 4th survey, "emotional support," a newly established category in this round, received the lowest score.
Looking at the 23 individual questions, the question asking whether patients received "comfort and empathy regarding their illness" recorded the lowest score at 82.37 points.
Analyzing scores based on participation timing, the comprehensive score for 91 medical institutions that have participated since the 1st evaluation was 90.79 points, which is 3.25 points higher than the overall comprehensive score of the 5th evaluation.
This indicates that as evaluation experience accumulates, the performance of the patient experience survey improves.
In addition, as evaluations were repeated, scores rose for questions related to providing information on rounding times and explaining the reasons for medications, tests, and procedures.
HIRA interpreted this as a sign that patients' right to know is being better guaranteed.
Specifically, the score for hospitals providing information regarding rounding times was only 76.96 points during the 1st evaluation, but rose to 84.76 points in the 5th evaluation.
The 5th evaluation introduced a rating system for the first time, resulting in 57 institutions in Grade 1, 85 in Grade 2, 129 in Grade 3, 80 in Grade 4, and 12 in Grade 5.
HIRA plans to conduct the 6th Patient Experience Survey from September to November of this year.
This upcoming round will expand the evaluation targets to include specialized hospitals and hospitals with 100 or more beds, in addition to previous evaluation targets.
The results of the 6th evaluation are scheduled to be released in July of next year.
HIRA President Hong Seung-kwon stated, "We will strive to spread a patient-centered medical culture by providing reliable evaluation information," adding, "In the 6th evaluation, we will expand assessments down to hospital-level medical institutions and further strive to incorporate treatment outcomes, such as the improvement of patients' symptoms based on patient experience, into future evaluations."
(Photo provided by Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, Yonhap News)
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