Patient Satisfaction

Measuring Patient and Family Satisfaction

How do we know what patients and families think about the care and service we provide?
We ask them!

Careline and Comment Cards

Press Ganey Satisfaction Surveys

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers (HCAHPS)

Careline and Comment Cards

Hospital patients and their families are encouraged use our Careline (781-624-8888) during their stay to let us know how we can make their visit better. We also invite immediate feedback through “Comment Cards” that are widely available throughout our organization.

Press Ganey Satisfaction Surveys

The most comprehensive way that we measure patient and family satisfaction is through formal surveys that are independently administered by Press Ganey Associates of South Bend, Indiana. Press Ganey is the nation’s leading satisfaction measurement firm. Survey results help us hear the voices of our patients and act on what they are telling us to make improvements to their care and to our organization as a whole. One benefit of working with Press Ganey is that we are able to compare our patients’ satisfaction with how satisfied patients report they are with more than 900 other hospitals and home care agencies across the country.

Press Ganey assists us in surveying several groups of patients, including those who received our emergency, critical care, inpatient, maternity, NICU, pediatrics, outpatient, visiting nurse and hospice services. Our patients and their families tell us that – more than anything – they want us to focus on assuring that we:

Here is how patient and families rated their overall satisfaction with South Shore Hospital’s care during the period April 1 to March 31, 2010:

Type of Care SSH Satisfaction Score National Score

Overall rating of inpatient care

85.2

85.0

Overall rating of emergency care

83.0

84.6

Overall rating of outpatient care

93.4

91.8

Overall rating of visiting nurse care

93.6

90.4

Overall rating of hospice care

97.1 93.2

 

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Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers (HCAHPS)

The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) now reports nationwide hospital patient satisfaction data on its Hospital Compare website: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov

Patient satisfaction with South Shore Hospital during this period closely approximates state and national averages.

CMS uses a survey known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers (HCAHPS) to measure the extent to which patients are satisfied with their hospital experiences.

Prior to HCAHPS, there was no national standard for collecting or publicly reporting patient satisfaction that would enable valid comparisons to be made across all hospitals. CMS designed HCAHPS to produce comparable data on patients' perspectives of care that allows objective and meaningful comparisons among hospitals on topics that are important to consumers. CMS believes that public reporting of survey results will create incentives for hospitals to improve the quality of our care. CMS also believes that public reporting will enhance public accountability in health care by increasing the transparency of the quality of hospital care provided in return for the public investment.

The HCAHPS survey is composed of 27 questions that are then bundled and reported as 10 composite scores. Most questions on the HCAHPS survey ask the patient to report on their hospital experience by answering how certain aspects of care occurred — “always,” “usually,” “sometimes” or “never.” Only the information about whether a particular action “always” occurred will be reported on the Hospital Compare website, because CMS believes this is the answer that most strongly indicates patients’ overall satisfaction.

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Patient Satisfaction with South Shore Hospital

Here is how patient satisfaction with South Shore Hospital compares to state and national averages, for the period July 2007-June 2008:

Indicator % SSH Patients Responding “Yes, Definitely” % State Avg. Responding “Yes, Definitely” % US Avg. Responding “Yes, Definitely”

Willingness to recommend our hospital

72

71

68

 

Indicator % SSH Patients
Rating 9-10
% State Avg.
Rating 9-10
% US Avg.
Rating 9-10

Overall rating
of our hospital

(0=worst, 10=best)

62

65

64

 

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Indicator % SSH Patients Responding “Always” % State Avg. Responding “Always” % US Avg. Responding “Always”

Communication
with nurses

- Treated with
   courtesy, respect
- Listened carefully
   to you
- Explained things
  so you understand

73

76

74

Communication
with doctors

- Treated with
   courtesy, respect
- Listened carefully
   to you
- Explained things
  so you understand

78

79

80

Responsiveness
of hospital staff

- To call button
- With help going
   to the bathroom

58

62

62

Pain management

- How well pain
controlled
- Staff did all it could
to help with pain

67

69

68

Communication
about medicines

- Told what medicine
  was for
- Side-effects
  were described

57

60

59

Cleanliness of hospital environment

- Room/bathroom
  kept clean

66

70

69

Quietness of
hospital environment

- Area around room
 quiet at night

40

49

56

 

Indicator % SSH Patients Reporting “Yes” % State Avg. Reporting “Yes” % US Avg. Reporting “Yes”

Discharge
information complete

88

85

80

 

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