The Atlantic says healthcare changes have led some hospitals to focus on making people happy, rather than well, according to an article on its website.

When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials wrote, “Delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care requires us to carefully consider the patient’s experience in the hospital inpatient setting,” they probably had no idea that their methods could end up indirectly harming patients, the article said.

"Patient-satisfaction surveys have their place. But the potential cost of the subjective scores are leading hospitals to steer focus away from patient health, messing with the highest stakes possible: people’s lives."

A national study revealed that patients who reported being most satisfied with their doctors actually had higher healthcare and prescription costs and were more likely to be hospitalized than patients who were not as satisfied. Worse, the most satisfied patients were significantly more likely to die in the next four years, according to the article.

Read the article.