Hospital commitment to community orientation and its association with quality of care and patient experience

We examine the association between hospital community orientation and quality-of-care measures, which include process measures for patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia as well as measures of patient experience. The community orientation measure is obtained from the 2009 American Hospital Association's Annual Survey Database. Information on hospital quality of care and patient experience comes from 2009 Hospital Quality Alliance data and results from the 2009 Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Medicare.gov, 2009). To evaluate the relationship between community orientation and measures of quality and patient experience, we used multivariate linear regressions. Organizational and market control variables included bed size, ownership, teaching status, safety net status, number of nurses per patient day, multihospital system status, network status, extent of reliance on managed care, market competition, and location within an Aligning Forces for Quality community (these communities have multistakeholder alliances and focus on improving quality of care at the community level). After controlling for organizational factors, we found that hospitals with a stronger commitment to community orientation perform better on process measures for all three conditions, and they report higher patient experience of care scores for one measure, than do those demonstrating weaker commitment. Hospital commitment to community orientation is significantly related to the provision of high-quality care and to one measure of patient experience of care.