The Moderating Role of Hospital Size on the Relationship Between Patient Experience and Patient Safety

Previous examinations of the relationship between patient experience and patient safety initiatives find that higher patient experience evaluations correspond to reduced incidence of adverse events. Little is known, however, about the impact of hospital organizational characteristics on this relationship. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which hospital size moderates the relationship between patient experience and patient safety.

A lagged cross-sectional ordinary least squares regression tests a hypothesis of a diminishing effect of hospital size on the relationship between patient evaluations of their interpersonal care experience and hospital's central-line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is tested on a sample of 1740 US hospitals using data compiled from Hospital Compare and the American Hospital Association.

The results find that the magnitude of the relationship between patient experience and patient safety initiatives is diminished as hospital size increases and suggest that care providers' ability to deliver care in a manner that is simultaneously responsive to individual patient needs and preferences and reliable in its avoidance of adverse events is influenced by hospital size. An additional fractional logit is presented, which accounts for restrictions in the dependent variable further support study findings.