Dataset Information

Hospital Advertising, Competition, and HCAHPS: Does It Pay to Advertise?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To test whether hospital advertising expenditures predict HCAHPS global ratings.

Data sources/study setting

We examined media advertising expenditures by 2,142 acute care hospitals in 209 markets in the United States. Data on hospital characteristics, location, and revenue came from CMS reports; system ownership was obtained from the American Hospital Association. Advertising data came from Kantar Media. HCAHPS data were obtained from HospitalCompare.

Study design

Regression models examined whether hospitals' advertising spending predicts HCAHPS global measures and whether market concentration moderated this association.

Data collection/extraction methods

Hospital advertising spending was calculated by adding each individual hospital's expenditures to the amount spent by its parent health system, proportionally allocated by hospital revenue. Health system market share was used to estimate market concentration. These data were compared to hospitals' HCAHPS measures.

Principal findings

In competitive markets (HHI below 1,000), hospital advertising predicted HCAHPS global measures. A 1-percent increase in advertising was associated with a 1.173-percent increase in patients rating the hospital a "9" or "10" on the HCAHPS survey and a 1.540-percent increase in patients who "definitely" would recommend the hospital. In concentrated markets, this association was not significant.

Conclusions

In competitive markets, hospitals that spend more on advertising earn higher HCAHPS ratings on global measures.

SUBMITTER: Huppertz JW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5517686 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Hospital Advertising, Competition, and HCAHPS: Does It Pay to Advertise?

Huppertz John W JW Bowman R Alan RA Bizer George Y GY Sidhu Mandeep S MS McVeigh Colleen C

Health services research 20160822 4

<h4>Objective</h4>To test whether hospital advertising expenditures predict HCAHPS global ratings.<h4>Data sources/study setting</h4>We examined media advertising expenditures by 2,142 acute care hospitals in 209 markets in the United States. Data on hospital characteristics, location, and revenue came from CMS reports; system ownership was obtained from the American Hospital Association. Advertising data came from Kantar Media. HCAHPS data were obtained from HospitalCompare.<h4>Study design</h4 ...[more]

PMID: 27546176

Similar Datasets

Project description:ImportanceHospital advertising has been touted as a tool to improve consumer decision-making, but little is known about its association with objective measures of hospital quality.ObjectiveTo document recent trends in hospital advertising in the US and examine the association between concurrent measures of hospital advertising and quality.Design, setting, and participantsRetrospective cross-sectional study of all general acute care hospitals operating in the US between January 2008 and December 2016. Data were analyzed from December 6, 2019, to July 15, 2020.ExposureAnnualized advertising spending for each hospital as measured by a market research firm.Main outcomes and measuresFour composites of hospital performance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Compare database were used: risk-standardized mortality rate, risk-standardized readmission rate, Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems (CAHPS) Overall Patient Experience Rating (scale of 1-5; higher scores indicate a more positive patient experience rating), and overall 5-star rating. Linear models adjusted for hospital bed size, hospital revenue, and geographic census region.ResultsThe study sample included, on average, 4569 general acute care hospitals per year between 2008 and 2016. During this time, approximately half of acute care hospitals (2239 of 4569 [49%]) advertised their services to consumers and spent a total of $3.39 billion. Relative to hospitals that never advertised, advertising hospitals were more likely to be nonprofit facilities (mean [SD], 66% [47%] vs 51% [50%]; P < .001), had larger bed sizes (mean [SD], 234.3 [210.7] beds vs 84.8 [110.6] beds; P < .001), and had higher net incomes (mean [SD], $17 800 000 [$49 000 000] vs $134 099 [$51 600 000]; P < .001). There was no observed association between hospital advertising and performance. For example, hospitals that advertised had a mean (SD) CAHPS 5-star rating of 3.2 (0.9) stars compared with 3.3 (1.0) stars among hospitals that did not advertise, an insignificant difference (P = .92). We observed no difference in performance between advertising and nonadvertising hospitals in 30-day readmission rates (mean [SD], 15.5% [0.8%] vs 15.6% [1.0%]; P = .25), mortality rates (mean [SD], 12.7% [4.0%] vs 12.0% [4.1%]; P = .46), and overall 5-star hospital ratings (mean [SD], 3.1 [0.8] stars vs 3.0 [0.9] stars; P = .50). A significant difference was observed in adjusted mortality rates across terciles of advertising spending, with lower mortality rates for the hospitals with higher ad spending (2016, mean [SD] mortality composite for hospitals in the highest tercile, 11.2% [4.2%] vs hospitals in the middle tercile, 12.0% [3.8%], and for hospitals in the lowest tercile, 12.7% [4.1%]; P = .003).Conclusions and relevanceThe results of this cross-sectional study suggest that the amount hospitals spent on direct-to-consumer advertising was not associated with publicly reported measures of hospital quality; instead, hospital advertising spending was higher for financially stable hospitals with higher net incomes.

Dataset Information

Hospital Advertising, Competition, and HCAHPS: Does It Pay to Advertise?

Objective

Data sources/study setting

Study design

Data collection/extraction methods

Principal findings

Conclusions

Publications

Hospital Advertising, Competition, and HCAHPS: Does It Pay to Advertise?

Similar Datasets

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