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NARH Patients Highly Rate their Experience04:10PM / Friday, July 17, 2009
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Patients at North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) rate their experience in the top 4 percent of more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. That’s according to patient satisfaction surveys that Press Ganey Associates conducts.
The hospital also has strong performance in ratings on Medicare quality measures that are publicly reported at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. In the most recent report, NARH scores were better than the state average on seven questions. NARH also earned the top scores on six of the questions compared to other local hospitals.
“It is gratifying that our patients report they do indeed receive exceptional healthcare from the heart, as our mission promises,” said Richard T. Palmisano, FACHE. He is president and CEO of NARH. “These scores reflect the concerted effort of employees and physicians at NARH to improve the experience for patients we care for at North Adams Regional.”
Palmisano said he and others on the hospital’s Executive Team will scoop ice cream for employees Tuesday, July 21. The sundae event is a thank-you for the hard work employees have put in to earn such strong patient ratings.
NARH’s inpatient units ranked in the 98th percentile in the Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey for April. This puts inpatient care in the top 3 percent compared to more than 1,000 hospitals similar in size to NARH. The inpatient units are 3 North, Critical Care, and Obstetrics/Nursery.
The Ambulatory Surgery Unit and Emergency Department ranked in Press Ganey’s 97th percentile in April. This is the top 4 percent.
The Medicare quality measures are from a section of patient surveys called HCAHPS. It stands for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. The most recent results that Medicare published on the website cover the 12 months that ended in September 2008.
On six HCAHPS questions, NARH scored better than the state average. NARH’s scores were also better than Berkshire Medical Center’s in Pittsfield and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s in Bennington, Vt. The areas of top performance were:
* Nurses communicated well
* Always received help as soon as they wanted
* Reported that pain was always well controlled
* Room and bathroom were always clean
* Area around their room was always quiet at night
* Responded “yes,” they were always given information about what do to during their recovery
In addition, NARH scored better than the state and national average on the question “Staff always explained medicine before giving it.”
NARH takes seriously the ratings and comments that patients write in the surveys. For example, it launched a Shh! campaign to respond to concerns about noise in patient areas. Staff members call patients after they leave the hospital to check in with them and answer questions. These are examples of improvement projects that resulted in more satisfied patients.
North Adams Regional is a full-service community hospital. It has served healthcare needs of the people of Northern Berkshire and Southern Vermont for more than 120 years. Ninety-six percent of the medical staff is board-certified or board-eligible. Board certification demonstrates a physician’s exceptional expertise in a particular specialty of medical practice.
Press Ganey measures patient satisfaction for more than 40 percent of U.S. hospitals. The customer feedback data it collects helps hospitals measure and improve their quality of care. |
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