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1st appeared
31
March 2000
Patient Satisfaction at Medical Center Remains High Despite the tumultuous times in recent years, patient satisfaction remains high for health care services at the UCSF and Mount Zion medical centers, according to recent survey results. "The overwhelming majority of the patients we serve remain deeply satisfied with the care we provide and that fact is an immense tribute to the dedication of our staff and physicians," said Chancellor Mike Bishop. "Make no mistake, for all the travail of the past two years, we remain a premier academic health center, universally admired for our ability to heal and to advance medical knowledge." Medical Center faculty and staff can take pride in the figures presented in the last snapshot measuring satisfaction of patients who were surveyed by Press Ganey Associates Inc., a satisfaction measurement and consulting firm, hired by UCSF Stanford Health Care. The surveys, conducted between September and November 1999, were mailed randomly to patients from each hospital unit in the four-hospital system. The surveys measured satisfaction of UCSF and Stanford’s adult and children’s inpatient and outpatient services separately and combined the average scores for these services at all four locations to come up with an overall satisfaction score for adult and pediatric services. Another report, which covers questionnaires sent from December 1999 to February 2000, is expected to be forthcoming, according to Susan Alves-Rankin and Deborah Yano-Fong, co-directors of patient relations. Each service area was scored on what’s called a Likert scale, then calculated and converted to a 100-point scale, with 100 being the highest possible score. As in years prior to the merger, patients gave their UCSF health care providers high marks – rating inpatient physician care at 86 and nursing care at 83. "Patients still comment frequently about the quality of their physician and nursing care and that has remained high to the credit of all the hard work of our staff," says Alves-Rankin. "As health care becomes more complex everywhere – with new technology – one of the most important factors to a patient is being cared for by people who can deliver that care with compassion." Highlights from the executive summary of patients surveyed at UCSF and Mount Zion from September to November 1999 show:
In regards to areas needing improvement, some patients expressed concerns about the availability of getting a doctor on the phone, the ease of obtaining a desired appointment date/time, ease of phone access to service and the length of the wait in some reception areas. Some of these issues have been the target of several improvement projects. In addition to these global satisfaction surveys, individual departments and units also conduct their own evaluations to build on strengths and address areas for improvement as identified by patients. And while Yano-Fong and Alves-Rankin serve as the point people for patient complaints and concerns of all kinds, they continue to receive letters from those who appreciate and praise the services provided at UCSF and Mount Zion. "I have never been so sick and taken such good care of," wrote one pleased patient. Added another, "As a teacher, I enjoyed being in a teaching hospital where students and residents seem to like patients and to be looking for the best solutions with an eagerness that I found lacking elsewhere." Such comments are encouraging to staff who are working diligently to meet the needs of the patients. "It’s gratifying to see how staff have remained focused and committed to patient care through all the economizing and reorganizing in recent years," says Yano-Fong. Before the November 1997 merger, the UCSF Medical Center regularly monitored patient opinions and perceptions about health care services and shared the details and comments with staff to both recognize good work as well as to identify areas for improvement. Alves-Rankin and Yano-Fong are excited about renewing their focus on patient satisfaction. "We need to know where we are doing well and where we can make we improvements to remain competitive and keep patients coming back." They are serving on an interdisciplinary committee to evaluate how best to continue to monitor patient satisfaction in the future. Source: Lisa Cisneros, Newsbreak Editor |
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