Surgical Patients' Hospital Experience Scores: Neighborhood Context Conceptual Framework

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Healthcare
• Patient Experience Measurement

Background:

• Assessing patient experience in surgical settings requires understanding neighborhood influences.
• Patient-reported experience scores can be affected by factors beyond individual patient attributes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel model examining individual and residential context factors influencing patient-reported experience scores.
• To investigate the impact of neighborhood characteristics on patient experience ratings in a surgical setting.

Main Methods:

• Geocoding residential addresses from electronic medical records to the census tract level.
• Linking individual patient data to census tract-level characteristics.
• Utilizing hierarchical regression analyses to assess neighborhood influences on patient experience.

Main Results:

• Individuals in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities reported higher experience ratings.
• Neighborhood characteristics, such as public assistance rates, independently influenced hospital experience scores.
• These neighborhood effects persisted beyond individual patient factors like age, gender, and pain levels.

Conclusions:

• Geocoding is a valuable tool for analyzing surgical patient experience.
• Neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors significantly impact hospital experience ratings, independent of individual patient characteristics.