With the advent of high-deductible insurance plans and healthcare savings accounts, it’s not surprising that people are starting to ask questions about their care options. Today’s healthcare consumer is a sophisticated comparison shopper. You look for value, a proven safety record and top-notch care marked by professionalism and compassion. At Piedmont Hospital, we are committed to creating the kind of healthcare experience patients expect and deserve. That’s why we provide you with the best quality information to help you make informed healthcare choices.

We are publishing our patient satisfaction scores as part of an ongoing transparency initiative that starts with the patient experience. Over the next year, we’ll be adding data about our clinical outcomes, procedure pricing and job satisfaction surveys.  We invite you to peer through the curtain and see what is going on behind the scenes at Piedmont. We also invite your conversation and comments along the way.

Patient Satisfaction Initiatives
We listen to our patients. Measuring your satisfaction with your healthcare experiences is vital to improving our quality of care. Using the survey tools from Press Ganey we track our patient satisfaction scores and compare them to our peers to determine areas for improvement.

2nd quarter patient satisfaction higher than peers
For the second quarter of 2007, Piedmont Hospital is tracking above our peers in overall patient satisfaction with a score of 87.9 – compared to 86.8 for our peers. The difference of one point is more significant than it seems. With more than 250,000 outpatient admissions and approximately 30,000 inpatient admissions per year, there is a lot of hard work behind even a half percentage point increase in patient satisfaction scores. Our goal is to raise our scores by one point each year.

Here is a brief summary of each of our key patient satisfaction areas:

Inpatient Services
Since the third quarter of 2006, patient satisfaction scores for inpatient services have remained fairly steady. The fourth quarter of 2006 saw the lowest scores (86.4) while the highest score (87.1) was reached in both the third quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007. Overall, patient satisfaction has steadily run higher than our peers, whose inpatient satisfaction scores have peaked at just 83.6 in the same period.

Outpatient Services
The peak score for outpatient services was in the fourth quarter of 2006, when patient satisfaction reached a mean score of 90.4. This is still slightly lower than our peers, who had a mean score of 90.4 in the same quarter and have steadily reached 90.6 since the third quarter of 2006.

Emergency Services
We have seen a higher degree of change in emergency and ambulatory services patient satisfaction scores. In the third quarter of 2006, the highest score so far was reached at 84.9 – compared with 81.1 among our peers. In the first quarter of 2007, however, Piedmont’s mean score was only 80.5, slightly lower than our peers at 81.1. That score rose to 82.5 in the second of quarter of 2007, while our peers remained steady at 80.6.

Ambulatory Services
Mean scores for ambulatory services have remained fairly constant except for a brief dip down to 90.8 in the fourth quarter of 2006. Overall, scores have steadily remained slightly above our peers, with the highest score (92.9) being in the third quarter of 2006.

Ongoing Process Improvement
At Piedmont Hospital, patient satisfaction is more than a measure of the patient’s experience. It’s also an ongoing improvement initiative that involves every member of the healthcare team. Each month, department directors receive a patient satisfaction report that highlights areas of success and opportunities for improvement. During staff meetings, supervisors review the scores with the staff and develop action plans to address areas of concern. Employees are always excited when they achieve higher scores, and it’s evident that they work diligently to improve them.

Continuity of Care
While each area of the hospital works hard to improve patient satisfaction, we also realize that boundaries between hospital departments are often invisible to patients. Therefore, we emphasize continuity of care that focuses on the whole patient experience from arrival to discharge and beyond. This requires attention to detail and a commitment to organizational teamwork.

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