Improving patient experience is a national priority for hospitals in the United States. From how clearly nurses communicate to how well discharge instructions are explained, every interaction matters — and it's often measured through standardized surveys.
In this post, I analyzed trends in hospital service ratings across the U.S., identifying which areas have stagnated and where opportunities for improvement still exist. The goal is to explore how hospitals can better prioritize the services that most influence patient satisfaction.
🧪 Dataset: The dataset used in this project is from Maven Analytics Website and is entirely synthetic
Through visualizations and correlation analysis, I’ll show where the system is stuck — and where there’s room to lead.
Overall, hospitals across the country have shown minimal improvement in service quality. While a few states lacking key resources made some progress, the majority of hospitals have either plateaued or declined in performance. In fact, many service ratings have worsened in 2023.
This trend suggests that hospitals have not made substantial progress in any single service area. If improvements had occurred, we would expect to see at least a modest increase in the national ratings. The following chart shows the top-performing states and national rating for each hospital service over time. While minor fluctuations exist, most services remain stagnant or have declined slightly in 2023, indicating a lack of consistent improvement.
Interestingly, states with smaller rural populations—such as New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ), and the District of Columbia (DC)—tend to have lower hospital performance scores. In contrast, states with more rural areas—such as Nebraska (NE), South Dakota (SD), Kansas (KS), and Iowa (IA)—are consistently among the top performers.
The next chart highlights how these top-performing states have maintained relatively higher ratings over time compared to the low-performing states.
This finding challenges common assumptions and suggests that rural-dominant states may be better at delivering certain aspects of hospital care. The comparison in the following chart reveals that states with higher rural population percentages tend to have better average hospital service ratings. On the other hand, more urbanized states like New York and New Jersey show lower performance, suggesting rural hospitals may offer more consistent patient experiences in certain areas.
Although hospital ratings are generally stagnant and showed a noticeable decline in 2023, this trend also reveals a significant opportunity. The consistently low scores across multiple service areas indicate room for systemic improvement.
The most impactful way to improve overall hospital ratings is to focus on each hospital's weaknesses and services that show the highest correlation with overall satisfaction. These include care transition, cleanliness of the hospital environment, communication with nurses, and responsiveness of hospital staff. The following heatmap illustrates the strength of correlation between each patient experience measure and the overall hospital rating, highlighting which areas hospitals should prioritize to drive improvements in patient satisfaction.
- H _CLEAN_HSP - Communication with Nurses
- H_COMP_1 - Communication with Doctors
- H_COMP_2 - Responsiveness of Hospital Staff
- H_COMP_3 - Communication about Medicines
- H_COMP_5 - Discharge Information
- H_COMP_6 - Care Transition
- H_COMP_7 - Cleanliness of Hospital Environment
- H_QUIET_HSP - Quietness of Hospital Environment
The data reveals a clear stagnation in patient experience across U.S. hospitals, but also uncovers key opportunities for improvement. By focusing on high-impact areas like care transition, cleanliness, communication with nurses, and staff responsiveness, hospitals can make meaningful progress. These insights—though drawn from a synthetic dataset—mirror real-world challenges and offer a roadmap for improving patient outcomes nationwide.
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