The Center for Medicare & Medicaid services website describes the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems as the, “first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care.”

The results of that survey are published on the Medicare.gov website. Based on the responses from 517 randomly selected patients, Union hospital was below the state and national average in every category, including only 47% of patients stating that they understood their care when leaving the hospital.

Other categories included whether or not patients would recommend the hospital, to which 61% of Union’s patients answered yes, compared to the state average of 71% and the national average of 69%. Union came closest to the national average when patients were asked about the cleanliness of their bathrooms with 72% saying they were “always” clean.

Additional low scores were given when patients were asked if they understood what medications they were being given, 54%, and if patients received help when they asked for it, 53% compared to the state and national average of 66%.

These results come as President and CEO of Union Hospital, Steven Holman, has seen his salary more than double in the past six years, from $854,950 in 2016 to $1,729,549 in 2022. With his largest raise being nearly $400,000 in 2020.

Compared to six other hospitals in mid-sized Indiana cities, Holman has the largest salary as a percentage of total hospital revenue. Those hospitals include Deaconess in Evansville, Parkview in Fort Wayne, Memorial in South Bend, and IU Health in Bloomington, Muncie, and Lafayette.

In a recent study of Indiana’s overall public health Vigo County ranked 63rd out of 92 counties. The county was significantly above the state average in preventable hospital stays, lack of access to healthy foods, and childhood poverty.

In a response to opposition of it’s merger with Regional Hospital, Union Health administrators referenced the public health study saying that the joining of the two hospitals would give Terre Haute residents greater access to beneficial services.