To test whether hospital advertising expenditures predict global ratings.
Data Sources/Study Setting
We examined media advertising expenditures by 2,142 acute care hospitals in 209 markets in the United States. Data on hospital characteristics, location, and revenue came from reports; system ownership was obtained from the American Hospital Association. Advertising data came from Kantar Media. data were obtained from HospitalCompare.
Regression models examined whether hospitals’ advertising spending predicts global measures and whether market concentration moderated this association.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods
Hospital advertising spending was calculated by adding each individual hospital's expenditures to the amount spent by its parent health system, proportionally allocated by hospital revenue. Health system market share was used to estimate market concentration. These data were compared to hospitals’ measures.
In competitive markets ( below 1,000), hospital advertising predicted global measures. A 1‐percent increase in advertising was associated with a 1.173‐percent increase in patients rating the hospital a “9” or “10” on the survey and a 1.540‐percent increase in patients who “definitely” would recommend the hospital. In concentrated markets, this association was not significant.
In competitive markets, hospitals that spend more on advertising earn higher ratings on global measures.
