FIGURE 2.

Prioritization of Competing Goals by Hospital Leadership^a,b,c,d

^aRespondents were asked to respond on a scale of 1 (lowest priority) to 10 (highest priority). The results displayed here correspond to responses of 9 or 10.

^bPenalties are those that were applied to payments in fiscal year 2013, when our survey was in the field. Minor penalties were defined as those that were less than the median; major penalties were those that were greater than the median.

^cP <.001 for all comparisons except “reducing hospital-acquired infections,” for which P = .85.

^dResults are adjusted for sample weights and nonresponse bias.