Survey returns from inpatients helps BBGH improve patient care
Answering the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey sent to selected inpatients that have recently stayed at Box Butte General Hospital (BBGH) is of great importance to the hospital’s mission, according to BBGH CEO Lori Mazanec. “Press Ganey, the company that conducts the hospital’s patient satisfaction survey, gathers all the information received from patients who return the survey and provides us with the results four times a year,” she said. “I’d say about half of our inpatients receive the survey. There is a cover letter from me that accompanies it. In the letter I state that our goal at Box Butte General Hospital is to provide our patients with the highest quality health care. One of the best ways to do this is to ask our patients what we are doing right and what may need improvement. Our hospital is truly invested in the best possible care for our service area. We’ve just completed our $40-million construction and renovation project to make sure our physical plant and equipment are state-of-the-art. That had a finite end date. It’s done. But the task of providing the best patient care is never ending. Our goal is to reach the 99th percentile in quality of patient care in all areas of our interaction with our inpatients. That’s a very lofty goal, one that can only be obtained by constantly seeking to improve our practices and procedures with the help and insight of the patients we serve.”
The inpatient survey covers eight domains and is 25 questions long, with each domain having from two to five questions that allow the patient to rate items specific to that domain. “The 25 questions are part of a national initiative sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to measure the quality of care in hospitals nationwide,” Ms. Mazanec continued. “In addition to providing our hospital the insights we need to provide consistent quality of care, the overall results also provide comparisons on issues of hospital care that are important to all consumers.”
The eight categories in the survey measure the following:
1) Your care from nurses. 2) Your care from doctors. 3) The hospital’s environment. 4) Your experiences in the hospital. 5) Doctor interaction with the patient. 6) The discharge process. 7) Personal issues. 8) Overall assessment.
Because BBGH is a Critical Access Hospital (CAH), the number of surveys returned is important for providing statistically meaningful results. “As I said, around half of our inpatients receive the survey because it is only sent to inpatients who meet certain criteria. For example, the inpatient must be over 18 years old. Also, HHS doesn’t allow surveys be sent to inpatients who, upon discharge: go to a nursing home; go to swing bed care; or are transferred to another hospital. Because of those limitations on who can be surveyed, there have been times when not enough surveys were returned to provide a statistically meaningful result,” she concluded. “That’s a common problem at many CAH facilities; simply because inpatient census counts for a particular quarter for CAH facilities are much lower than hospitals serving larger cities. So it is particularly important for us to have as many of our patients respond as possible. Doing so will improve patient care for the person returning the survey if they again need care at our facility as well as all other future patients who may need our services. So please watch for the survey after you’ve been discharged from the hospital. If you meet the survey criteria, you’ll receive it within a week or two after your stay. It only takes a short time to complete and return via a postage paid envelope accompanying it. Your input is very important to us.”
Besides the inpatient survey, Press Ganey also conducts similar surveys for the hospital’s Emergency Department, Outpatient Surgeries and its Greater Nebraska Medical and Surgical Services clinics.
Box Butte General Hospital is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
