Hospital Conversions Lose Favor in Poll

Displeasure over the conversion of non-profit hospitals to for-profit status is rising among Americans, a new survey has found.

Commissioned by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, Cal., the telephone survey of 1,000 adults found that 45 per cent said the hospital conversions were a “bad thing.” That’s a slight increase over the 42 per cent who said that in an identical survey done by the foundation in March.

Forty-two per cent of the respondents in the new survey said that for-profit hospitals provided better health care than non-profit hospitals did, while 55 per cent had said that previously. And 48 per cent of the new respondents said that for-profit hospitals were more efficient than non-profit ones, compared with 57 per cent who had said that before.

Americans’ attitudes are souring, theorize Kaiser officials, partly because of news about financial fraud at Columbia/HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country.

For copies of the reports, call the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation at (800) 656-4533. They can also be viewed under “media programs” on the foundation’s World-Wide Web site (http://www.kff.org)