Background: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reimbursement is now contingent on quality measures such as patient satisfaction as determined by Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). In providing patient-centered care that is guided by patient satisfaction measures, it is critical to understand system-level factors that may influence how patients assess their care experiences. One important system-level influence to consider is hospital size. Methods: HCAHPS scores, number of hospital beds, and nursing magnet status were obtained from publically available Hospital Compare, American Hospital Directory, and Magnet Hospitals Web sites, respectively. An aggregate score for patient satisfaction was created across all domains of the HCAHPS. Multilevel regression modeling was performed to examine the associations between hospital size and HCAHPS aggregate and individual dimensions. Results: Hospital size was significantly associated with patient satisfaction such that larger size was associated with lower satisfaction (β = −.312, P < .001). Hospital size was most strongly associated with less patient satisfaction on the following HCAHPS items: “receiving help as soon as needed” (β = −.441, P < .001), “room and bathroom cleanliness” (β = −.286, P < .001), and doctor communication (β = −.213, P < .001), whereas nurse communication (β = .194, P < .001) was the one modifiable dimension that was associated with more favorable ratings in larger hospitals. Magnet nursing designation was significantly associated with larger hospital size (P < .001). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction scores may be lower in large hospitals because of patients' perceptions of hospital cleanliness, receiving help on time, and doctor communication. Focusing on improving these factors may improve patient satisfaction scores for larger hospitals.

Background: Patients with breast cancer have high rates of physical symptoms that negatively impact their quality of life. The relationship between women's perceptions of these physical symptoms and patient demographic and breast cancer characteristics is less well known. This study describes physical symptoms of patients with breast cancer and their relationship with patient characteristics.Methods: Patients (n = 125) with breast cancer (stage 0‐IV) completed questionnaires in a dedicated academic medical center breast cancer clinic. Patients reported demographics (age, race/ethnicity, marital status, and employment status) and disease characteristics (surgery type, receipt of chemotherapy, or antihormonal therapy). Patients reported whether they were bothered by any of the 22 physical problem list (PPL) variables from the distress thermometer and problem list.Results: The median number of physical problems endorsed by patients was 3.0 (M = 3.43, SD = 3.42). Approximately one‐fourth endorsed no physical symptoms while three‐fourths reported at least 1 problem, and three‐fifths endorsed 2 or more problems. Fatigue (40.0%), sleep (34.7%), skin dry/itchy (22.9%), pain (19.5%), and feeling swollen (19.5%) were most commonly reported. Age, race/ethnicity, marital status, employment status, and receipt of chemotherapy were associated with certain physical problems. Problems with breathing, eating, memory/concentration, nausea, and total number of endorsed PPL variables were associated with distress.Conclusion: The breast cancer population demonstrates heavy physical symptom burden with multiple physical problems that are related to overall functioning. Special attention should be given to the physical symptom burden of younger, nonwhite, unmarried, and unemployed patients. Future research should investigate the PPL of the distress thermometer and problem list with other measures of symptom burden.