Hospitals in Virginia have seen their patient satisfaction scores rise in recent years, increasing from 64 percent in 2009 to 70 percent in 2014, according to the national Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. Unfortunately, hospitals in the state are faced with other challenges, as uncompensated care costs grow and reimbursement rates fall.
Although Virginia hospitals have made progress in raising their patient satisfaction scores, the state's hospitals still fell short of last year's national average of 71 percent. Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington received the highest average ranking among state hospitals at 85 percent. Sentara Princess Anne Hospital in Virginia Beach and Sentara Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Medical Center also received ratings above 80 percent.
As reimbursement methods shift toward value-based payment programs, patient satisfaction and care outcomes increasingly affect a hospital's financial health. Without sufficient financial resources, Virginia's healthcare organizations worry they may not be able to provide the type of quality care necessary to continue boosting patient satisfaction, and in turn, collecting more federal funding.
The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association said the financial environment has become so desperate for its members, hospital officials are willing to accept measures they have traditionally refused in order to provide high-quality care, according to Virginia Business. In early December, Virginia lawmakers proposed a long-resisted bed-tax as a means to reap more Medicaid funding for struggling state hospitals.
"The mounting financial burden of diminished reimbursements, increased uncompensated care and federal funding cuts necessitate the exploration of even the previously unthinkable," VHCA President Sean T. Connaughton wrote in a letter to the state's general assembly.