Floridians gave high marks to their hospital stays, but low marks to care in emergency rooms, according to a national poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"The highest share of excellence, the top of the chart, were for people who were hospitalized,” said Harvard professor and study co-director Robert Blendon.
On the other end of the spectrum, Floridians were much less pleased with the care they got in ERs over the past two years
"Essentially one in four people who used the emergency room rated it fair or poor, in Florida,” Blendon said. “That is really pretty powerful, in terms of being critical."
Those low marks reflect what people say across the country about their experience with the ER.
According to the poll, more than a third in Florida said the reason they went to the ER because they thought they couldn't get in at other facilities.
Coming up today, during All Things Considered on NPR, Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya takes a look at how ER use is going up, despite it being a frustrating place to get care.
Lottie Watts is a reporter and producer with WUSF in Tampa. Health News Florida receives support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
