South Africa's Hospitals

The results from these surveys, together with the surveys hospitals have adopted, will help all role players to gain insights into how patients experience clinical services, and to improve your experience of healthcare delivery.

We use these results to identify opportunities where improvements can be made. Where performance issues are seen, we intend to improve the visibility of the specific problems identified in the survey and, together with healthcare professionals, professional groups, hospitals, patients and families, participate in solving them for the benefit of all.

We share the survey results with members of schemes we manage through the Patient Survey Score. This summarises how patients perceive the delivery of healthcare services and provides more detailed information from each question in the survey.

We share the results with hospitals and hospital groups, for example Life Healthcare, Mediclinic, Netcare, NHN, JMH and independent hospitals. This feedback includes text comments that patients provide and that they give permission for us to send to the hospitals.

Many hospitals are already using their survey results, alongside their own survey and programmes, to guide their own improvement initiatives.

We realise you may decide to use these results to inform your choice of a hospital in future. It's  important to realise that patient experience is just one component of quality of care, and there are other factors to consider as well. It is important to talk with your doctor about the patient experience scores. A lower score does not mean that the hospital is bad. It shows room for healthcare delivery improvement which the hospital may already be undertaking.Talk with your doctor about plans the hospital might have to improve these scores in the near future.

About nurse communication

1. During this hospital stay, how often did nurses treat you with courtesy and respect?

2. During this hospital stay, how often did nurses listen carefully to you?

3. During this hospital stay, how often did nurses explain things in a way you could understand?

4. During this hospital stay, after you pressed the call button, how often did you get help as soon as you wanted it?

About doctor communication

5. During this hospital stay, how often did doctors treat you with courtesy and respect?

6. During this hospital stay, how often did doctors listen carefully to you?

7. During this hospital stay, how often did doctors explain things in a way you could understand?

About the hospital conditions

8. During this hospital stay, how often were your room and bathroom kept clean?

9. During this hospital stay, how often was the area around your room quiet at night?

About your hospital experience

10. During this hospital stay, did you need help from nurses or other hospital staff in getting to the bathroom or in using a bedpan?

11. How often did you get help in getting to the bathroom or in using a bedpan as soon as you wanted?

About Pain Management

12. During this hospital stay, did you need medicine for pain?

13. During this hospital stay, how often was your pain well controlled?

14. During this hospital stay, how often did the hospital staff do everything they could to help you with your pain?

About Medicine information

15. During this hospital stay, were you given any medicine that you had not taken before?

16. Before giving you any new medicine, how often did hospital staff tell you what the medicine was for?

17. Before giving you any new medicine, how often did hospital staff describe possible side effects in a way you could understand?

Leaving the hospital

18. After you left the hospital, did you go directly to your own home, to someone else's home, or to another health facility?

19. During this hospital stay, did doctors, nurses or other hospital staff talk with you about whether you would have the help you needed when you left the hospital?

20. During this hospital stay, did you get information in writing about what symptoms or health problems to look out for after you left the hospital?

Overall hospital rating

21. We want to know your overall rating of your stay at this hospital (where 0 is the worst hospital possible and 10 is the best hospital possible)

22. Would you recommend this hospital to your friends and family?

Additional Insight

Nurse Nomination

23. Based on your experience of this hospital stay, can you think of a nurse who stood out for you in a positive way?

24. Please provide the full name of the nurse?

25. Please describe what he/she did to care for you?

Questions about you

26. In general, how would you rate your overall health?

27. What is the highest school grade or level of education that you have completed?

28. What language do you mainly speak at home?

Your comments

29. You may provide us with comments about this survey or about your hospital experience.

30. What can we do with your comments?

  • May we share your unedited comments with the hospital?
  • If yes, can we also share your name and email address with the hospital?
National Experience of Survey Results for all hospitals

The Discovery Health patient survey is based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey developed by the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The patient experience survey has 25 questions grouped into nine categories. Including Question 21: 'We want to know your overall rating of your stay at this hospital (where 0 is the worst hospital possible and 10 is the best hospital possible).

Below are two scores: (i) An overall rating of the hospital stay for all hospitals included in this measurement, based on the overall ratings given in the patient experience survey (ii) A survey summary score for all private acute hospitals nationally that captures the best possible score a hospital can get in any of the survey categories

Overall rating of hospital stay score for all hospitals (average score for survey Question 21)
82.3%
Patient survey summary score for all hospitals
(best possible score aggregated across all survey categories)
63.5%

How does Your Hospital Score?

Find out how your hospital scores when it comes to various measures of patient experience

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Interesting Facts about Hospital
admissions (For Year 2019)

Total hospital costs

42,721,859,009

Days in ICU

156,665

Deliveries

47,630

Admissions

943,989

Surgeries

353,599

Days in hospital

3,306,205

Top 5 Conditions for Admission and the
Total Costs for these Admissions (In Rands)

Caesarean childbirth

1,647,718,929

Cataract and/or lens procedures

860,159,572

Pneumonia

 

844,511,745

Gastrointestinal tract disorders (GIT)

397,108,122

Depression

858,559,993

Hospitalised member's conditions

Patient survey categories

 

Overall rating of hospital stay
Patients who gave their hospital a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest).

 

Doctor Communication about Care
Patients who reported that their doctors communicated well.

 

Nursing Communication about Care
Patients who reported that their nurse communicated well.

 

Pain Management
Patients who reported their pain was controlled.

 

Responsiveness of staff
Patients who reported that they received help when needed.

 

Hospital Environment
Patients who reported that the area around their room was clean and quite.

 

Medicine information
Patients who reported that the staff provided helpful information about medicines before giving it to them.

 

Discharge information
Patients who reported that they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home.

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