Shoa L. Clarke wrote about the experience of rich patients:

• At one hospital elite patients are given red blanket to signify their status. There are no explicit instructions on how they should be treated, but all the staff know what a red blanket means.
• Such patients are offered penthouse patient suites with gourmet food, luxury linens, and personal business centers.
• A survey of emergency departments indicates that elite patients are likely to get quicker treatment than regular ones.
• Yet patient satisfaction is correlated with negative outcomes – meaning that all this coddling may be bad for the rich.
• The reason seems to be that doctors are likely to order too many tests and prescribe too many treatments to ensure that top patients feel satisfied, ultimately hurting the patients’ diagnosis and recovery.

Read the full article here.

Centives has previously covered the amenities that the super-rich receive at hospitals. You can read about that here.

Source: The New York Times