Statewide Hospital Patient Experience Survey

What We Did:

This was the project that spawned the creation of MHQP.  Then known as the Massachusetts Health Quality Partnership, MHQP was formed in 1995 by a coalition of health, business and government leaders in Massachusetts to develop healthcare performance measurement initiatives to meet public accountability needs. With a wide call for increased transparency on healthcare performance in Massachusetts, MHQP focused first on measuring and reporting on patient experience in hospitals.

The survey included nearly 13,000 patients discharged from the 51 hospitals and health systems that voluntarily participated in the project.  Performance was assessed across seven dimensions of care for three different types of patients: medical, surgical and maternity.  The results were first released in 1998, marking the first time in our nation that statewide hospital survey results of patient experiences were accessible to the general public.

MHQP also convened a series of networking sessions to help hospitals identify opportunities for improvement and share best practice ideas.

Who Was Involved:

A balanced group of health industry participants in Massachusetts committed financing and expertise in support of this project, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield of MA, Fallon Community Health Plan, Harvard Community Health Plan, Tufts Health Plan, MA Business Roundtable, MA Hospital Association, and MA Medical Society.  Various state agencies were also involved in planning.  MHQP contracted with the Picker Institute to conduct the statewide survey.

Why This Work Matters:

This is the first time in the country that hospitals from across an entire state voluntarily participated in a survey project using consistent methodology and agreed to make the results available to the public.  This effort paved the way for public reporting of healthcare performance data in Massachusetts and across the nation and laid the foundation for an array of collaborative efforts under MQHP’s leadership.

Related Resources:

• Read a Report on this project from 1998