Long Beach Hospitals Earn Weak to Fair Patient Raitings

By RENEE SCHIAVONE and PAIGE AUSTIN

Patients at most Long Beach hospitals are less-than-thrilled when it comes to the quality of care they receive, according to new rankings of customer satisfaction surveys released this month. The three local hospitals in Long Beach earned one and three out of five star rankings with St. Mary Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center coming out on top.

Community Hospital Of Long Beach earned just one star, and St Mary Medical Center earned two stars.

Following a stay at one of about 5,000 hospitals nationwide, patients ranked their experiences in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, which was conducted Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of 2014. The results, which range from one to five stars, were released in early October.

Included in the data are results from surveys given at 298 hospitals in California. The majority of hospitals were ranked with just two or three stars by patients.

There were 101 of them receiving the two-star ranking— including San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in Banning.

A total of 21 other hospitals received just one star.

Of the rest, 125 received three stars and 43 received four stars. Only eight received five out of five stars.

Poor scores can result in lower reimbursement rates from Medicare under the government’s value-based purchasing program, according to the survey.

Below, you will find the full list of participating hospitals in California. If you head to HealthcareFinaceNews.com, you can find a searchable list of hospitals nationwide.

What do you think of the rankings of our local hospitals? Do you agree or disagree with the numbers of stars received? Tell us in the comments below!