Over the past several months, Horn Memorial Hospital has
made an increased effort to post quality scores and patient satisfaction scores
around the hospital. Following the lead
of the Iowa Hospital Association, posting this information is part of a
national effort for hospitals to be more transparent so that the public is more
aware of patient perceptions and quality of care. The information that Horn posts is about
patient satisfaction for Inpatient Hospital Care as well as various quality
initiatives tracked by the Emergency Department.
Currently there are two Quality Boards located in the main
hallway at Horn, one right next to the information desk and one right outside
of the X-Ray waiting area. The board
located next to the information desk shares three patient satisfaction scores
for entire calendar year of 2016.
Measure #1 tracks overall patient satisfaction on the Inpatient Unit:
“Patients who gave Horn a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale of 0 (lowest) to 10
(highest).” Horn’s average score for the
year was 87%, meaning that 87% of patients rated their care a “9” or “10”. A patient could rate their care an “8” and it
would not count as a favorable score for Horn.
Horn’s average of 87% is well ahead of the state of Iowa average of 77%
and the national average of 72%. Measure
#2 reports on the percentage of patients surveyed who would “Definitely
Recommend” the hospital. Horn scores high
on this measure as well, at 72%, which is slightly below the state average of
75% and right on target with the national average of 72%. Measure #3 reports on “Patients who reported
that their room and bathroom were always clean.” Horn excels in this area, scoring 92%. State average for this measure was 80% and national
average was 74%.
Horn CEO Chris Nichols comments, “Our housekeeping staff is
widely recognized for providing an extremely clean facility, not only in the
inpatient area, but all areas of the hospital.
For overall satisfaction, a patient could rate us an “8” out of “10”,
which is a good score, but doesn’t count in our favor. For nearly 90% of our patients to give us a
rating of 9 or 10, it’s a remarkable accomplishment. It’s a team effort led by our dedicated
nurses and providers, but every single department plays a part in the patient
experience. Our success goes back to an
entire organization that puts great emphasis into providing the highest quality
and compassionate care to our patients.”
The quality board that is located next to the X-Ray waiting
room highlights projects that the Emergency Department has taken on since 2016. The first measure listed is the “Average time
patients who came to the Emergency Department with broken bones had to wait
before receiving pain medication.”
Horn’s average time for this measure is 22 minutes, well ahead of the
state of Iowa average of 45 minutes and the national average of 52 minutes. The second measure listed is “Average number
of minutes before patients with chest pain or possible heart attack received an
electrocardiogram.” Horn’s average is 6
minutes, which is below the state and national average of 7 minutes. Quality Director Heather Gann comments, “For
over two years we’ve been working hard to improve certain processes in the
Emergency Department. The success we’ve
had, particularly with beating state and national averages for “door to EKG
time”, is a credit to the team really embracing a challenge to improve. We’ve learned from best practices as well as
what other hospitals were doing to have success at this. We’re very proud of these quality scores – it
speaks to a very strong Emergency Department that’s committed to improvement.”
Horn plans to implement additional quality boards at other
locations in the hospital and clinics over the next year. The website
www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare
has additional information on hospital quality and patient satisfaction scores.
