[Analysis of Spanish hospital's reputation: relationship with their scientific production in different subspecialities].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between reputation of hospitals, as determined by specialists' opinion, and their scientific production.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

A questionnaire was sent to a sample of members of the Spanish Societies of Cardiology, Digestive Diseases, Neurology and Otorhinolaryngology. Each member had the possibility to nominate 5 hospitals with the greatest reputation amongst his/her specialty. Final score for those hospitals with more than 5% of all votes was used for the development of a reputation index. We assess the scientific production (number of publications and citations) for nominated hospitals and analyze the possible correlation between the reputation index and the scientific production.

RESULTS

We received 151 (30%) answers for cardiology, 227 (27%) for digestive diseases, 148 (30%) for neurology and 177 (18%) for otorhinolaryngology. The number of published articles and the number of citations for each nominated hospital showed a positive and statistically significant correlation with the reputation index.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first approach to analyze reputation parameters for Spanish hospitals. Scientific production and reputation index showed a positive correlation.