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Despite hospitals’ best efforts and slogans, they can’t please all their patients all the time, according to a survey of people who have stayed at least one night in a hospital. Here is how some Iowa hospitals fared in a recently released nationwide patient satisfaction survey conducted in 2007. Developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the survey gathered input from patients regarding which aspects of care they thought were important to them in assessing the value of their health-care services.

Iowa’s hospitals on average scored higher in each of the 10 areas of satisfaction surveyed than the national average, said Dr. Tom Evans, president and CEO of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. “The numbers seem to indicate patient satisfaction is higher in Iowa,” he said. “Our job is to raise that bar.” Evans noted that the lowest average score for hospitals related to noisy rooms; Only 58 percent of patients agreed that their room was kept quiet enough at night.

The survey results are part of a comprehensive annual report released last week by the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative, an initiative to improve the quality of medical care in Iowa. The report, which includes complete survey results for the 48 hospitals that participated, is available online at www.ihconline.org. The survey results begin on Page 137 of the report.