Hospital receives high marks in patient satisfaction survey

Despite continuing financial troubles at Washington’s hospital, most patients treated there are generally pleased with the care they get. That’s the finding in the latest survey from HealthStream Research of patient satisfaction at Beaufort County Medical Center.

While patients in some units had different opinions of their care than others, some 68.1 percent of inpatients at BCMC gave the hospital top scores for their care during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the survey.

That number is down from the 75.3 percent of patients giving the hospital top scores for care in the third quarter of 2010, but up from the hospital’s lowest score of 63.3 percent received in the second quarter of 2010.

The scores represent the percent of patients that gave the highest possible rating on the scale being used č always, usually, sometimes, never or definitely yes, probably yes, definitely no or probably no, according to Gayle Floyd, director of staff services and risk management for Beaufort Regional Health System.

Each month, HealthStream Research randomly telephones patients who received treatment in the hospital’s medical, surgical and obstetrics-and-gynecology units. Surveys are conducted of patients receiving care in the hospital’s emergency department and those treated as outpatients, she said.

The surveys are designed “to produce data on patient perspectives of care” and are required by every hospital that receives payments from Medicare and Medicaid, Floyd said. They give hospital staff valuable information on what services need improvement and what services are meeting patient expectations, Floyd said.

“It’s one tool that we use,” she said. “It’s a way we know how we are doing and how we need to improve. We appreciate our praises and we do pay attention to our negative comments.

Showing the greatest improvement in patient satisfaction during the months of October, November and December, or the fourth quarter, of 2010 was the hospital’s obstetrics-and-gynecology unit.

Patients giving the highest rating in overall satisfaction in the care they received while patients in that unit rose from 55.6 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to 73.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the survey. The hospital’s fourth-quarter rating topped the national average of 72 percent given by patient satisfaction in similar units for the first time since July 2009, according to the report.

And some 90.9 percent of patients receiving care in the hospital’s obstetrics-and-gynecology unit in the fourth quarter of 2010 said they would likely recommend the hospital to others. That figure is up from 55.6 percent of the patients who said they would recommend the hospital to others in the third quarter of 2010.

The improvement in the scores was the result, in part, of a concerted effort by doctors and staff members in the OB/GYN unit to educate patients about what they can expect during childbirth and improving response time to patient calls for assistance. And nurse managers in the unit, along with other staff members, stepped up efforts to address patient concerns, Floyd said.

The hospital’s surgical unit showed the sharpest decline in patient satisfaction, with some 61.5 percent of patients giving the highest rating in overall satisfaction with the care they received in that unit in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the survey. That number is down from the highest rating given to the unit in the third quarter of 2009, when 84.6 percent of patients surveyed gave the highest rating to overall satisfaction to the unit. It is also less than the national average of 69.1 percent of patients in similar units who gave the highest rating for the care they received.

And some 69.4 percent of patients receiving care in the hospital’s surgical unit in the fourth quarter of 2010 said they were likely to recommend the hospital to others. That number is down from the highest rating given in the second quarter of 2010 when 82.9 percent of patients said they were likely to recommend the hospital to others.

Floyd said she did not know what caused the dip in satisfaction ratings by patients in the unit, which regularly scores higher than the national average in patient satisfaction.

And the unit’s score has rebounded to 80 percent during the first three months of 2011, according to preliminary survey data released by the hospital.

The hospital’s outpatient department has consistently received the highest overall satisfaction rating from July 2009 through December 2010 and has out-paced the national average for similar units, according to survey results.

Some 86.2 percent of patients gave the department their highest rating during the fourth quarter of 2010 as compared to 83.5 percent of patients giving the highest rating for outpatient care at hospital’s nationwide, according to the survey.

And some 88.9 percent of patients receiving treatment as outpatients said they were likely to recommend the hospital to others. That figure is higher than the national average of 82.3 percent of patients, according to the survey.

The unit recently receiving HealthStream Research’s Excellence for Insight award for its overall patient satisfaction scores.

The hospital’s emergency department has consistently received some of the lowest satisfaction scores of any of those given by its patients. Some 48.6 percent of patients surveyed gave the highest satisfaction rating to the care they received in the department in the fourth quarter of 2010. That figure was up from the second quarter in 2010, when 44.4 percent of patients surveyed gave the department the highest satisfaction rating but less than the 56.5 percent of patients nationwide who give the care they receive in emergency departments the highest rating.

With offices in Baltimore, Md., and Nashville, Tenn., HealthStream Research conducts patient-satisfaction surveys and other research for more than 1,100 health-care providers throughout the nation.