Bangalore: Manipal Hospital Most Patient-friendly in India - Survey

Newindpress

Bangalore, Feb 11: The country's first customer (patient) satisfaction study of hospitals across the country has revealed that the silicon city's Manipal Super-specialty Hospital is the best, followed by Indraprastha Apollo of Delhi.

The premier All India Institute of Medical Services ranks fourth in the overall rating. Over 4,000 consumers from six metro cities and nine districts have said that they would recommend these two hospitals to their friends and relatives. The study conducted by Voluntary Organisation in the Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) in collaboration with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has some surprises as well.

For instance, the famous Lilavati Hospital of Mumbai, known for treating film stars is at the 15th position. The least recommended was the Apollo Gleneagles. Providing information about fee charged is a major issue with which the patients are concerned.

Unfortunately the study has found that not many hospitals are transparent. A little over 30 per cent feel that the super-specialty hospitals are transparent as far as their financial dealings are concerned. A majority of those surveyed felt that super-specialty hospitals do not inform the patients about the various charges for services.

They did not see any information about hospital service charges near the registration counter. Wockhardt Hospital of Mumbai was found to be transparent as all its patients said they saw the charges displayed clearly.

As for the charges for various services, Wockhardt Super-specialty hospital of Bangalore led the way with 91 per cent of its patients reporting that their charges were higher than that of other hospitals.

The AIIMS patients were the happiest as nearly one-third of them admitted that the AIIMS was a very cost effective hospital. As for the emergency services, 73 per cent of those surveyed felt that they had used the service in Manipal Hospital and the least used emergency service were that of the Apollo Hospital, Chennai. Very rarely patients choose hospitals. Over 49 per cent choose a hospital based on doctor's advice.

Reputation of the hospital came second. Patients were satisfied with regard to doctor's visit and their trust level was also high. More than 7 per cent of the patients had problems like charging excess fee or hidden costs or behaviour of the nurses.

The AIIMS seems to be the most problem- ridden, as one out of every four reported having faced a problem. The study also focused on other facilities for the disabled, provision for parking and waste disposal systems.

Though hospitals were found to be clean, an effective waste disposal system could not be found in any of the hospitals. Is the Pollution Control Board listening?

The survey included some big secondary hospitals. The District Hospital, Palakkad, Kerala, stands first, followed by GNRC, Assam, and Owasi Hospital, Andhra Pradesh (both private). Among the small hospitals, once again Welcare Hospital, Palakkad tops the list followed by Parasiya Community Health Centre, Madhya Pradesh and Cooperative Health Care, Palakkad. Overall analysis show that only in 6 out of 60 patients who used ambulance services said that it did not reach on time.

The study show there is a direct co-relation between the education level of consumers, their financial standing and the call for usage of ambulance.

The usage of ambulances was found higher among post graduates and professionally qualified respondents