South African health insurer Discovery Health has released its annual list of 20 leading South African hospitals as rated by patients through the Patient Survey Score (PaSS). There are five newcomers to the list, with several hospitals in the Busamed and Mediclinic groups included.
The Top 20 list is based on aggregated surveys completed by members of medical schemes administered by Discovery Health rating their in-hospital experience across various aspects of care.
The 2018 PaSS list, which is modelled on a globally validated survey, reveals five newcomers and five hospitals appearing for the fifth consecutive year. In 2018, Discovery Health received 53,000 survey responses from patients admitted to 202 hospitals.
Dr Roshini Moodley Naidoo at Discovery Health says: “The voice of the patient is powerful and can be used to make a difference in how care is delivered. PaSS creates a systematic and standardised way to capture information about a patient’s experience of care in hospital. These results are then shared with members on Discovery’s website, creating transparency and driving positive change by helping healthcare providers identify gaps that need attention.
By making a patient’s experience of care visible to the entire healthcare system, PaSS acts as a catalyst for change. This level of visibility increases accountability for changes to be made to patient care. Hospitals often respond to PaSS scores by implementing improvement initiatives such as ensuring that better information is available to patients about post discharge care or that nurses listen more carefully and respond to patients’ needs.”
The survey captures patient feedback on:
- How well nursing staff engage and communicate with patients.
- How well doctors engage and communicate with patients.
- How well suited the hospital environment is to the needs of patients.
- How well pain is managed.
- How clearly information about medication is shared with patients.
- Whether patients are adequately prepared for discharge.
- Whether patients would recommend the hospital to others.
The leading hospitals rated by patients in 2018 as offering the best experience of care are listed below, in alphabetical order. There are five newcomers to the Top 20 list in 2018, four hospitals feature for the second time, while three make their third appearance.
- Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital
- Busamed Gateway Private Hospital
- Busamed Hillcrest Private Hospital
- Busamed Lowveld Hospital
- Busamed Modderfontein Private Hospital
- Busamed Paardevlei Private Hospital
- Cormed Clinic
- Lenmed Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre
- Lenmed Shifa Hospital
- Life Bay View Private Hospital
- Mediclinic Hoogland
- Mediclinic Panorama
- Mediclinic Plettenberg Bay
Mediclinic Strand - Mediclinic Victoria
- Mediclinic Worcester
- Melomed Bellville Medical Centre
- Midlands Medical Centre
- Moot Algemene Hospital
- Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital
The 2018 results show an improvement in five out of the eight survey categories, with the remaining three categories showing very minimal drops. The categories that patients care about most are: how nurses communicate and engage with patients, information about medicine and managing pain. Doctors are central to best quality care and patients rate doctors the highest out of all survey categories.
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