When you are not well, you may choose to go to the nearest hospital or the hospital where your known doctor practices. Which hospital, though, is the best for your particular needs? In fact, compared to other hospitals, some hospitals perform a better job of caring for patients with specific conditions. Always go to the closest hospital if you have a life-threatening emergency. But, in the event that you have surgery scheduled or if you have a medical condition such as heart disease and anticipate requiring hospital care afterward, then do a thorough research on which hospital to select for your healthcare needs.

Receiving quality medical care in the hospital could aid in your recuperation and prevent further issues. Not every hospital offers care of the same caliber. Most hospitals have initiatives in place to evaluate and raise the standard of the care they offer. To determine where they can make improvements in patient care, they might gather and keep track of data from patient records. They may use the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey to ask patients about their experiences in the hospital. Numerous hospitals provide this data to various government organizations. After reviewing that data, those organizations rank, rate, and assist hospitals in enhancing the quality of care. Moreover, certain online resources or websites also offer some information regarding hospital quality.

It can be difficult to choose the best hospital for the care you require. Numerous hospitals and health systems may be promoting their rankings as the “Number 1 Hospital” or the “Top 10 Hospital,” either overall or for a specific medical specialty, on everything from highway billboards to magazine ads and internet search results. But when you’re searching for the best hospital for a particular surgery or medical condition, what exactly do these rankings mean?

Continue reading to understand all that you must know regarding online hospital ratings and rankings. Avail expert advice on how to find the appropriate hospitals for your specific requirements.

What Accreditations exhibit the Hospital’s quality of care?

“To Err is Human,” a significant report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1999, advocated for establishment of quality and safety standards in healthcare. According to the report, quality is multifaceted, and quality assessment serves as one of the strong driving forces behind performance improvement. As a result, various approaches have been used around the world to monitor healthcare quality both internally as well as externally. External review systems promote organizational change, improve service quality, and aim for quality standards. Accreditation is the most prominent and most widely used strategic external quality assessment method in the healthcare sector.

Accreditation is an external peer review that assesses how well a healthcare organization complies with pre-defined performance standards with a primary objective of improving healthcare quality. It is supervised by a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations, who use various modalities in either voluntary or mandatory approaches. The accreditation scope can include the entire healthcare facility, a specialty, or even a sub-specialty. It is important to check the accreditations that the hospitals on your shortlist possess when  choosing the hospital for your healthcare needs.

The accreditation bodies listed below certify Indian medical facilities for providing quality care or healthcare services in accordance with established standards:

  1. National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)
  2. National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)
  3. Joint Commission International (JCI)
  4. Quality Council of India (QCI)
  5. ISO Certification

How do Hospitals get rated and ranked?

Hospitals can be ranked and rated in a variety of ways. Various websites may do the raking and rating in a way that prioritizes one aspect of healthcare over another. Following are the parameters that are generally considered in hospital evaluations.

  • Patient survey information: Patients rate various aspects of their hospital stay in these surveys, including overall satisfaction, facility cleanliness, pain management, ease and quality of communication with nurses and doctors, and staff’s responsiveness.
  • Measures of clinical outcome: This includes complication rates, patient safety, and mortality rates for particular conditions.
  • Timely and efficient medical attention: Hospitals are rated according to how well they treat certain illnesses, like heart attacks and pneumonia, promptly and in accordance with established medical protocols.

Top Websites that provide Hospital Rankings and Ratings

If you’re trying to determine which hospital is best for your specific healthcare need, either nearby or farther away, you may wish to take a look at the rankings and testimonials on these websites:

  • Medflick
  • Hospital Compare (Medicare)
  • Best Hospital Rankings from U.S. News & World Report
  • Hospital Safety Grade from Leapfrog
  • Healthgrades

Factors to Consider While Choosing the Hospital for Your Healthcare Needs

Patients are becoming more and more empowered to actively and intelligently choose their own medical care in an increasingly consumer-centric healthcare environment. It has been suggested that giving patients more options will increase competition, enhance the quality of care, and lower health-related costs. Choosing the hospital for your healthcare needs is one of the most important choices that patients make. Many believe that this decision will affect how their treatment goes and, in the end, how their health turns out. Patients can weigh a number of considerations and consult a variety of sources of information before selecting a provider. Patients used to rely on referrals from friends or family earlier. However, with the quick development of internet resources, an extensive amount of provider information is easily accessible.

Following are the factors you should consider while choosing the hospital for your healthcare needs:

  • Hospital standards and infrastructure: Make sure, the hospitals you have listed hold governmental accreditations, so that you can avail the best quality of treatment. Check whether your hospitals are accredited to JCI (International standardization of hospitals) or NABH (Indian standardization of hospitals).
  • Doctor’s expertise in the hospital for the treatment of your condition: The number of successful cases accomplished by a doctor should be considered before selecting the hospital. Generally, higher the expertise, higher will be the cost.
  • Doctor’s experience in the hospital for the treatment of your condition: You should select the hospital that has doctors with more years of work experience in treating your condition.
  • Severity of disease: More severe disease will require a more extensive and complex course of treatment. One should select the hospital which has advanced infrastructure to handle your treatment.
  • Overall health status of patients: People having prevailing illnesses and old-age people will be at risk of getting more complications. So, one should select the hospital which has advanced infrastructure and high success rate to treat your condition.
  • Out of pocket expense: If your treatment is not being covered under your health insurance policy, then you may have to pay a higher out of pocket amount for the treatment. So,make sure that the hospital you choose is covered under that insurance policy.
  • Diagnostic facility: Ensure that the hospital you choose can provide all kinds of advanced diagnostic facilities. It must have hi-tech labs and well-furnished wards.
  • Hospital fees: If you are choosing a government hospital for your treatment, then the cost of the treatment will definitely be highly affordable. On the contrary, if you choose any private or corporate hospital for your treatment then you will have to pay a higher amount.
  • Type of Treatment: Depending upon your condition, your doctor will plan the treatment approach for you. Make sure that the hospitals you are choosing for your treatment provides all kinds of facilities required for it.
  • City where hospital is located: Hospitals located in bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Noida, Gurugram, etc. may charge comparatively more than the hospitals located in the smaller cities. This is because hospitals in the metropolises can facilitate you better in every aspect. Make sure that hospital you are choosing for your treatment is affordable to you.

Click here to avail expert advice on how to choose the best hospital for your healthcare needs

FAQs

Q1: How to select a hospital for yourself ?

A: The informed patients generally choose hospitals on the basis of the expertise of medical professionals working in the hospital, accessibility of the hospital, infrastructure of the hospitals, as well as the affordability.

Q2: What factors do patients consider when choosing hospitals?

A: The most important factor to consider for choosing a hospital is to check the speciality you require treatment in and success rate of the hospital in treatment of the condition you are suffering from.

Q3: What are the characteristics of a good hospital?

A: Well-qualified and experienced medical professionals, hi-tech infrastructure, good patient care and assistance, timely treatment and services, quick insurance claim clearance, and good patient reviews are the features of a good hospital.

Q4: What should the perfect hospital look like?

A: An ideal hospital should be located at a highly accessible place of the area (near the highway). It should also have high-tech facilities, qualified and experienced medical staff, prompt treatment and services, timely insurance claim processing, positive patient feedback, and excellent patient care and support.