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Compassion, 'calming rooms' lead to patient satisfaction

Quality Improvement Monitor, April 20, 2007

Listening, showing compassion, and trying to turn waiting rooms into "calming rooms" stocked with amenities have helped propel patient satisfaction scores to the 95th percentile at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA.

"If we did something smart here, it was to study best practice," says Kent Jackson, MA, LMSW, director of children's specialty services, behavioral health, and the leader of St. Luke's patient-family experience team.

The hospital began its drive to improve patient satisfaction three years ago to differentiate the facility from its competitors. That's when the staff took a closer look at St. Luke's scores within the Press Ganey database and realized that it ranked in the 49th percentile.

"When people found that out, they were shocked," Jackson says. Because the hospital's mean scores had not dropped significantly, the facility wasn't paying close attention to its percentile ranking, Jackson explains. "I think people were embarrassed by it."

 "We took a very behavioral approach to this, teaching people specific behaviors that will generally improve the experience of the patient and family," Jackson says. "We looked at scripting, and our very first script said, 'Is there anything else I can do for you?'"

Managers began rounding on inpatients. And the facility instituted a no-point policy in which staff members accompany patients or families that look lost to their destinations instead of just pointing or giving directions.

Within months, the hospital's inpatient scores shot up to the 93rd percentile, which has further climbed to 95th since then. That success has also translated to high scores on the Hospital-Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) when the facility took part in CMS' trial run in 2006.

For more information, go here http://www.hcpro.com/content/68724.cfm

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