These are the 20 best hospitals in South Africa according to Discovery members

Discovery Health has released its list of the 20 best hospitals in South Africa.

Now in its fifth year, the ranking is based on aggregated surveys completed by members of medical schemes administered by Discovery Health, with patients rating their in-hospital experience across various aspects of care.

In 2018, Discovery Health received approximately 53,000 survey responses from patients admitted to 202 hospitals. The group is the largest medical aid provider in South Africa with 2.9 million members.

The survey captured the following areas of patient feedback:

• How well nursing staff engage and communicate with patients;
• How well doctors engage and communicate with patients;
• How well suited the hospital environment is to the needs of patients e.g. are noise levels kept to a minimum;
• How well pain is managed;
• How clearly information about medication is shared with patients;
• Whether patients are adequately prepared for discharge e.g. are patients given information about symptoms to look out for that may indicate a need to see the doctor again; and
• An overall hospital rating including whether patients would recommend the hospital to others.

Below are the leading hospitals rated by patients in 2018 in alphabetical order.

• Ahmed Al-Kadi Private Hospital
• Busamed Gateway Private Hospital
• Busamed Hillcrest Private Hospital
• Busamed Lowveld Hospital
• Busamed Modderfontein Private Hospital
• Busamed Paardevlei Private Hospital
• Cormed Clinic
• Lenmed Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre
• Lenmed Shifa Hospital
• Life Bay View Private Hospital
• Mediclinic Hoogland
• Mediclinic Panorama
• Mediclinic Plettenberg Bay
• Mediclinic Strand
• Mediclinic Victoria
• Mediclinic Worcester
• Melomed Bellville Medical Centre
• Midlands Medical Centre
• Moot Algemene Hospital
• Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital

The 2018 results show an improvement in five out of the eight survey categories, with the remaining three categories showing very minimal drops.

“We’re pleased to note that overall Patient Survey Scores have improved by 19% since we began publishing results in 2014, clearly showing that hospitals surveyed are increasingly meeting patient expectations of better care. Running the survey and publishing the results annually, has the same positive impact in our healthcare environment as observed internationally,” said Dr Roshini Moodley Naidoo, head of Quality of Care at Discovery Health.

The categories that patients care about most are: how nurses communicate and engage with patients, information about medicine and managing pain. Encouragingly, all of these categories delivered higher scores in 2018, and it is hoped these will improve even further in future years.

“We believe the survey has a positive impact beyond in-hospital care, as patients who are well-prepared for discharge from hospital have better health outcomes and are at lower risk of repeat admissions.

“This is an important area of focus as repeat admissions are, on a global level, considered a warning sign of a care gap,” said Dr Naidoo.

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