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Esdras Perez of VPNE transports patient Denis Souliere to the hospital lobby.
Although patients are increasingly satisfied with all aspects of their inpatient stays at BWH, most of them undoubtedly look forward to going home to their families and friends. Central Transport Services is leading a new initiative to help make the discharge process a quicker and more pleasant experience for the approximately 80 patients who are discharged from BWH each day.
When a patient has been discharged by his or her care providers, Central Transport staff now dispatch trained VPNE employees to the patient’s bedside to transport the patient to the lobby. If the patient’s family has parked in a BWH garage, VPNE, which also runs the hospital’s valet service, arranges for the car to be outside waiting when the patient and family members arrive in the lobby so they can safely and easily leave the hospital. Or, if needed, VPNE will call a taxi and ensure it is waiting outside the lobby.
“Our goal is to extend the great customer service that begins when patients first walk into the hospital right up until the moment they leave our buildings,” said Luis Soto, director of Central Transport Services.
This initiative is yielding positive results in terms of patient satisfaction. Not only did the Discharge category record an all-time high mean score of 85.2 on the most recent Press Ganey Inpatient Satisfaction Survey, it also jumped almost two points compared to last year’s scores. These scores place BWH in the 86 percentile for discharge when compared with like-size teaching hospitals that use the Press Ganey survey.
“The rising patient satisfaction scores in discharge and other categories are reflective of the improvements that staff from different departments are collaborating on to create an even more positive experience for all of our patients and families,” said Maureen Fagan, RNP/MS, executive director of the Center for Patients and Families.
The discharge initiative, which began in March of last year with a pilot in CWN, is now in place throughout all inpatient areas across the hospital.
“Not only are patients discharged faster, but Central Transport staff are now freed up for other transports,” said Soto, whose department handles close to 30,000 transports of patients and equipment per month.