Perceived quality of hospital care.

Physicians, nurses, and consumers in the New York City area were asked to indicate which of 76 acute-care hospitals they would be willing to be patients in if they became seriously ill. Percentages of favorable judgments ranged from a high of 95% for one university hospital to a low of less than 10% for a community hospital. Over half of all responding physicians, nurses, and consumers indicated that they would not wish to be a patient in the majority of the 76 hospitals sampled. Although a high degree of consistency (r = .93) was observed among all three types of respondents, physicians were on the average significantly more pessimistic (X percentage of favorable judgments = 34) than nurses and consumers. All three groups indicated a statistically significant (p less than .001) preference for larger hospitals as well as institutions that were affiliated with a medical school in some way.