Patient Ratings of Veterans Affairs and Affiliated Hospitals

OBJECTIVES: Hospital Compare, a website maintained by CMS, allows comparisons of outcomes and processes of care but not of patient satisfaction for hospitals within the Veteran Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Therefore, we sought to compare online hospital ratings between VA hospitals and their local affiliated hospitals. STUDY DESIGN: Observational analysis. METHODS: We identified 39 VA hospitals and a non-VA affiliated hospital with at least 2 online Yelp ratings. We determined the difference in the mean rating (VA-affiliate rating) with weighting by the number of ratings for each hospital. We used multivariate regression to compare mean Yelp ratings between VA and non-VA affiliate hospitals, adjusting for hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, and accreditation). RESULTS: The mean patient rating for VA hospitals (± standard deviation) was higher (3.64 ± 1.0) than the rating for affiliated hospitals (3.09 ± 0.8; P = .0036). There was no significant correlation in rating between a VA hospital and its affiliate (r = 0.07; P = .59). After adjustment for hospital characteristics, the adjusted rating difference (VA-affiliate hospitals) was 0.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.12). CONCLUSIONS: VA hospitals had higher patient ratings than their non-VA affiliated hospitals, a finding not explained by bed size or teaching status.