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!

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers (HCAHPS)

Careline and Comment Cards

Hospital patients and their families are encouraged use our Careline (781-340-8888) 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:

Help them feel safe
Keep them informed
Work together as a team
Respond promptly to their concerns
Demonstrate at all times that we care about them as individual persons

Here is how patient and families rated their overall satisfaction with South Shore Hospital’s care during the period October 1 to December 31, 2007:

Type of Care	SSH Satisfaction Score	National Score
Overall rating of inpatient care	84.4	83.9
Overall rating of emergency care	79.3	82.9
Overall rating of outpatient care	91.4	91.9
Overall rating of visiting nurse care	92.3	90.2

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

Survey findings for hospital patients discharged between October 2006 and June 2007 are now available for review on Hospital Compare website.

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.

Patient Satisfaction with South Shore Hospital

Here is how patient satisfaction with South Shore Hospital compares to state and national averages, for the period October 2006-June 2007:

Indicator

% SSH Patients Responding

"Yes, Definitely"

% State Avg. Responding

"Yes, Definitely"

% US Avg. Responding

"Yes, Definitely"

Willingness to recommend our hospital

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)

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	71	75	73
Communication with doctors - Treated with courtesy, respect - Listened carefully to you - Explained things so you understand	73	79	79
Responsiveness of hospital staff - To call button - With help going to the bathroom	55	59	60
Pain management - How well pain controlled - Staff did all it could to help with pain	66	68	67
Communication about medicines - Told what medicine was for - Side-effects were described	51	59	58
Cleanliness of hospital environment - Room/bathroom kept clean	64	68	68
Quietness of hospital environment - Area around room quiet at night	46	48	54

Indicator	% SSH Patients Reporting "Yes"	% State Avg. Reporting "Yes"	% US Avg. Reporting "Yes"
Discharge information complete	81	83	79