A new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed the first national data on patients' experiences in hospital settings and found that though patients are generally satisfied with their care, there is substantial room for improvement in a number of key areas. The federal government and private organizations have begun to publicly report data, such as how well hospitals treat certain conditions, but until now, there has been no data on how patients themselves feel about the care they received. The researchers analyzed data collected in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, which asked patients questions about their hospital experiences and their demographic characteristics. Responses were grouped into six areas: communication with doctors, communication with nurses, communication about medications, quality of nursing services, how well hospitals prepared patients for discharge and pain management. More than 2,400 hospitals (about 60 percent of U.S. hospitals) reported data. The study, published in the October 30, 2008 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, found about 67 percent of patients would definitely recommend the hospital at which they were treated. Patients were more satisfied with hospitals that had a greater ratio of nurses to patients. The researchers were surprised by some results, though. Pain management has been the target of both accreditation and quality-improvement initiatives for many years, but nearly a third of patients did not give high ratings in that area. Discharge instructions have similarly been targeted for quality initiatives, but about a fifth of patients did not rate communications in that area highly.