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National survey puts Westerly Hospital
at the top
for patient satisfaction with inpatient care
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According to a national
survey, patients receiving inpatient care at The Westerly Hospital rated
the Hospital at or above national and state averages. On March 28, The Westerly
Hospital’s patient satisfaction performance was made public on a website
tool used for other hospital quality of care measures. The site is called Hospital Compare (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov)
and allows consumers to compare hospital performance and choose
healthcare organizations based on survey results.
The Westerly Hospital
sends surveys to a random sample of patients after they are discharged
and the results are submitted to CMS quarterly. The purpose of this survey is to
provide a standardized way to measure patient satisfaction and patient
perspectives about their hospital stay.
Specifically, the
survey includes 27 questions which are bundled and reported in 10
composite scores which reflect patients’ satisfaction with a
particular area of care. These areas
are: communication with nurses,
communication with physicians, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain
management, communication about medications, cleanliness of the hospital
environment, quietness of the hospital environment, discharge information,
overall rating of the hospital, and willingness to recommend the
hospital.
The questions on the
survey ask the patient to report on how frequently something occurred,
i.e., “always,” “usually,”
“sometimes,” or “never.” Reported on the Health Compare website will be the percentage of respondents
who indicated that a particular action “always” occurred, as
this answer most strongly indicates a patient’s overall
satisfaction; for example, what percentage of respondents indicated a
“doctor carefully listened to them” as part of the
“communication with physicians” portion of the survey.
The table below shows The
Westerly Hospital’s results compared with RI and U.S. averages. The results of the survey show that The
Westerly Hospital meets or exceeds national
and state averages in all areas of this national survey.
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Measure
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The Westerly
Hospital’s Score
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State Average
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National Average
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Overall rating of hospital
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69%
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63%
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63%
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Willingness to recommend
hospital
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69%
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67%
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67%
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Communication with nurses
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76%
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74%
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73%
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Communication with doctors
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83%
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79%
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79%
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Responsiveness of hospital
staff
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67%
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62%
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60%
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Pain Management
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68%
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68%
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67%
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Communication about
medicines
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58%
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58%
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58%
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Cleanliness of hospital
environment
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82%
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70%
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68%
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Quietness of hospital
environment
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58%
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48%
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54%
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Discharge Information ***
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83%
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81%
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79%
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*** Unlike the other scores,
this score reflects the percentage of respondents who answered Yes versus
No.
3/29/08
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