Patients’ Discontent Is Found in Survey
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
About one-third of hospital patients feel poorly prepared to go home, have trouble getting questions answered or feel they don’t have enough input on their treatment, a survey said. Boston-based Picker Institute, a health care consumer research firm, conducted the study. Picker surveyed 23,763 hospital patients and 13,363 patients in clinics or doctors’ offices around the country in 1996. Its findings were echoed by focus groups conducted by the American Hospital Assn.
