Good Shepherd Health Care System received top rankings in the most recent Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) summary report scores.
The highest scores Good Shepherd received were in rating the hospital on a 0-10 scale (95thpercentile rank), nurses treated the patient with courtesy/respect (99th percentile rank), nurses listened carefully to the patient (99th percentile rank), cleanliness of the hospital environment (99th percentile rank), and communication about medicines (99th percentile rank).
“Good Shepherd hit the 95th percentile in Patient Satisfaction for all reporting Oregon Hospitals and the 93rd percentile for all reporting hospitals in Oregon, Washington and Idaho for the last three months ending May 2022,” said Brian Sims, Good Sheperd’s president and CEO. “Nationally, Good Shepherd hit the 89th percentile for patient satisfaction. We have an amazing team of healthcare providers, nurses and staff.”
Hospitals refer to these scores as the “H-caps,” which includes a quarterly summary report of returned patient surveys that are then used to draw comparisons of hospitals across a variety of metrics. The scores are also deemed indicative of the standard of care at each facility and used to create incentives for hospitals and healthcare organizations to compete on patient engagement and satisfaction.
“Our team of professionals are doing everything possible to put our patients first, always, and these surveys from our patients show that they have noticed,” said Sims.
Based on surveys nationally, patient experience and perception of their care has decreased since the start of the pandemic for most hospitals.
“Despite declines in patient satisfaction across the country, Good Shepherd’s scores have risen,” said Sims. “We attribute that to our dedicated workers’ focus on improvement projects and implementation of Lean principles.”
Recently-discharged patients are asked during surveys about important topics like how well nurses and doctors communicated, how responsive hospital staff were to their needs, and the cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment.
Sara Camden, director of Acute Care Services at Good Shepherd, shared her thoughts on the reasons for Good Shepherd’s top marks.
“Our team has focused on making sure patients understand their discharge instructions and their medication plan before they are discharged,” she said. “We have made sure that patients have enough time to ask questions and we have ensured that they are given all the resources they need to be successful at home.
“Our Critical Care and Medical/Surgical nursing teams are unique and absolutely amazing. They are referred to as Acute Care Services, but they are vastly different in the skillset and types of patients they care for. Over the past couple of years, we have faced a pandemic that has literally changed the face of nursing care. Our focus of care has been altered from medication administration and treatments, to being our patients’ family at bedside with all the visitation restrictions that have been placed. We have had to change our way of thinking and adapt our care to focusing on the patient’s perception of their stay and their discharge plans. We encourage, educate, and emulate care as if it were our own family members.”
HCAHPS is a CMS-mandated quality measurement tool and is ingrained in Good Shepherd’s operations and Strategic Plan goals. HCAHPS surveys are publicly reported on Medicare’s Care Compare website (https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/) and overall star quality ratings are assigned based on patient feedback, which can be very useful for consumers. Good Shepherd recently improved to a four-star (out of 5 stars) patient survey rating last January and staff were celebrated with recognition and appreciation activities.
“It’s a proud moment to have public knowledge and recognition for the quality of care we give to every patient, every time,” said Sims, “Our patients and their families deserve the very best when they walk through our doors.”
