WATERVILLE -- Hospital patients in central Maine most prefer Inland Hospital for overall satisfaction, a survey reports.

Patients next preferred, in descending order: Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington and MaineGeneral Medical Center in Waterville and Augusta.

The results were based on Hospital Compare, a survey that evaluates hospital quality from the patient's point of view.

Put out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the nationwide survey's first results were released this year. The survey is available online at hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/Hospital/.

Overall, Maine hospitals fared higher than the national average on patient satisfaction, said Mike Swan, president of quality at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

At the site, one can choose up to three different hospitals and compare how patients have rated them for 10 quality-of-care categories, such as responsiveness of hospital staff, how well pain is controlled and how quiet the hospital is at night.

"All the categories are important," said Sarah Dyer, director of community relations at Inland Hospital. "We're working on all of them," she said.

Rather than feel threatened by what patients think, Inland welcomes the transparency that comes with patient-driven information found on the survey, she said.

Compared to other U.S. and state hospitals, Inland ranked higher than average on all 10 categories, she said.

"We don't want to brag, but we're proud of what we did," she said.

She is most proud, she said, of Inland's high rating on patient recommendation.

Eighty-four percent of Inland patients who responded to the survey said "yes, definitely," to the question: "Would patients recommend the hospital to friends and family?"

The state average is 74 percent; the U.S. average, 67 percent.

Inland's lowest patient rating -- 66 percent -- was in the category of communication about medicine. "Communication is very important. It's important for us to be transparent and to continue to improve," Dyer said.

For Franklin Memorial Hospital, a 70-bed hospital located in Farmington, patients gave an overall rating of 67 percent, close to the Maine average of 70 percent and higher than the 63 percent U.S. average.

"That means that 77 percent of patients reported we always do well," said Swan.

Hospitals across the state, however, are still perceived by patients as rather unquiet places at night. Almost all of the 36 Maine hospitals that participated in the survey got less than desirable results on the quietness rating.

At Franklin, 44 percent of patients said "yes" to the question: "How often was the area around the patient's rooms kept quiet at night?" That percentage was the same for Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and MaineGeneral in Waterville and Augusta and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

"The quietness score is typically the lowest score nationally, as well," Swan said. "We made the decision to have hard-surface floors, not carpeting, for employer safety. It's difficult to wheel beds and wheelchairs on carpeting."

According to the survey, the state average for patient satisfaction on quietness is 53 percent; the national average, 54 percent.

Carol Steward, communications director at Redington-Fairview Hospital, a 25 bed hospital in Skowhegan, is proud of the hospital's survey results. "Ten out of ten categories, we rated above national average. It's still not good enough. We are using the information to improve our patient care and make it better than it is today," she said.

She is particularly proud of their communication rating: Roughly 85 percent of their patients reported that nurses and doctors always communicated well.

"We rate highly our efforts to communicate with patients. We try hard to provide a comfortable and clean environment. We put a lot of effort into sharing information with a patient after recovery," she said.

People who are hospitalized overnight at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and Waterville are more likely than not to recommend that hospital to friends and family, according to the Hospital Compare survey.

Some 68 percent of patients with overnight stays said they would definitely recommend the hospital, a figure that's 1 percent higher than the average for U.S. hospitals and 6 percent lower than the average for the other Maine hospitals surveyed.

For most survey criteria, including surgical care improvement and preventing surgical infections, MaineGeneral did well, for instance, showing that 96 percent of the 757 patients surveyed indicating they received preventive antibiotics an hour before their surgery.

Chuck Hays, president and chief executive officer of MaineGeneral Medical Center, said the hospital routinely does patient satisfaction surveys and works to improve its ratings.

He said several of the patient satisfaction questions on the federal survey were new.

"Once we had a chance to analyze this data, we implemented senior management team rounds, where we visit staff and patients and ask about the services and what things we can do to improve," he said. "We use that feedback to improve our satisfaction scores."

Hays said the hospital previously participated in surveys done by the Maine Hospital Association.

"This one we haven't had a lot of experience with," Hays said.

"We embrace the openness of showing our date and had it online. We are looking to improve."

He said the survey reflects answers from patients at all the MaineGeneral sites, since they are licensed as one hospital. It does not, however, include information about the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, an outpatient only site. "Overall, hospitals want to improve," he said. "You want to be in the top tier of satisfaction. We're here for the community, and this is a good measure of whether you're serving the community."