[Analysis of Spanish hospital's reputation: relationship with their scientific production in different subspecialities]

Abstract

Background and objective: To assess the relationship between reputation of hospitals, as determined by specialists' opinion, and their scientific production.

Material and method: A questionnaire was sent to a sample of members of the Spanish Societies of Cardiology, Digestive Diseases, Neurology and Otorhinolaryngology. Each member had the possibility to nominate 5 hospitals with the greatest reputation amongst his/her specialty. Final score for those hospitals with more than 5% of all votes was used for the development of a reputation index. We assess the scientific production (number of publications and citations) for nominated hospitals and analyze the possible correlation between the reputation index and the scientific production.

Results: We received 151 (30%) answers for cardiology, 227 (27%) for digestive diseases, 148 (30%) for neurology and 177 (18%) for otorhinolaryngology. The number of published articles and the number of citations for each nominated hospital showed a positive and statistically significant correlation with the reputation index.

Conclusions: This is the first approach to analyze reputation parameters for Spanish hospitals. Scientific production and reputation index showed a positive correlation.