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In This Issue:
All Teams to Focus on DischargeImprovement Highlight: Food Services and NutritionDischarge Issues: Addressed in Patient Satisfaction Survey:
While results from the sixth period of the Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey are mixed, there is reason to be proud, according to Patient Satisfaction Steering Committee members.
“Some are up and some are down, but certainly there are successes to celebrate,” said Robert Goldszer, MD, associate chief medical officer.
In particular, for the period between April and June of 2002, patient attitudes toward the admission process, meals and tests and treatments all are up slightly.
The Patient Satisfaction Steering Committee has established goals for the coming year as the hospital strives to continually improve upon patient satisfaction. The overall goal is for the hospital to rank in the 90th percentile in each area of the survey, compared with other academic medical centers of similar size. The 10 areas of the survey include admission, tests and treatments, room, meals, physicians, nurses, overall assessment, visitors and families, personal issues, and discharge.
“Our performance in the overall assessment category is consistently in the 90 percentile range,” said Michael Gustafson, MD, MBA, executive director, Center for Clinical Excellence. “What we want to do now is strive to achieve the same level of service excellence in each individual dimension." In general, this translates into a desired improvement of the mean survey scores for each section by 1-4 points.
To help focus improvement for FY 03, the Steering Committee has asked each Care Improvement Team to place an emphasis on evaluating and enhancing their discharge processes. This includes evaluation of how discharge plans are discussed early with the patient and family, what discharge teaching materials exist and how they are used, and how the logistics of leaving the hospital can be expedited on the day of discharge.
“We know that this is an area requiring attention,” said Gustafson. “Of the survey questions that have the greatest impact on overall satisfaction, three relate to discharge. If we all focus on this issue, it will go a long way toward achieving our goals. And by focusing on improving our discharge process we also can achieve other benefits such as opening up beds for patients in our surgical recovery rooms and Emergency Department.”
If you are interested in working on a patient satisfaction program in your area, contact the physician, nurse leader or coordinator of the care improvement team for your department; Dorothy Goulart in the Center for Clinical Excellence; or Robert Goldszer, MD.