SANDUSKYREGISTER.COM FRONT ARTICLE-Happy with our hospitals
BY ANNIE ZELM
Monday, May 19, 2008 2:33 AM EDT

With the click of a mouse, consumers can now see how hospitals in their area measure up.

Each of the five hospitals in the Firelands area rank as good as or better than state averages in most areas, according to a recently-released patient satisfaction survey. The voluntary survey, sponsored by Medicare and known as the hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, is the first standardized, publicly reported survey to reflect patient opinion on their hospital stays.

Results are posted at the Hospital Compare Web site at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

Patients were asked to rate hospitals on a variety of areas from cleanliness and communication to whether they would recommend the facility to family and friends. Bellevue Hospital earned the highest rating of area hospitals for recommendations, with 82 percent of patients answering that they would "definitely recommend it" to others. This put them in the top 25th percent of all hospitals in the nation in terms of patient satisfaction.

Bellevue Hospital CEO Mike Winthrop said the survey results underscore the ongoing efforts of his staff to provide the best care possible.

"We've always felt good about type of patient care we've given, but we're always trying to work on some areas to make them stronger," he said. "One area where we didn't rate as strongly was patients receiving information upon release about how to care about themselves, so we're reviewing our procedures for discharge."

As a state, Winthrop said Ohio "still has a lot of work to do," ranking 41st of 50 on overall patient perception. Hospitals in smaller communities tend to rank better in better public perception because the staff there tend to be more well-known by regular patients, he said. Another measure of success he noted was ranking in the 99th percentile nationally in terms of cleanliness.

More than 2,500 hospitals participated, including Fisher Titus Medical Center in Norwalk, Firelands Regional Medical Center, Memorial Hospital in Fremont and Mercy Hospital in Tiffin.

Fisher-Titus Memorial Hospital in Norwalk followed closely behind Bellevue's ranking in the same area, with 79 percent of patients saying they would recommend the hospital.

The hospital began conducting patient satisfaction surveys more than 10 years ago and sharing the results with employees on a quarterly basis, President Patrick J. Martin said, but the HCAHPS provides the staff with more specific areas to view as benchmarks for improvement.

"We are very pleased that the scores for Fisher-Titus in the 'always' category were above the state and national averages for all areas surveyed," Martin said in an e-mail response. "While our efforts so far have resulted in care that is better than the average scores for all hospitals in Ohio and the U.S., we are always striving to exceed patients' expectations."

At Firelands Regional Medical Center, 70 percent of patients interviewed reported they would recommend it to family and friends.

Patty Martin, area director of quality and patient satisfaction at the hospital, said she noted with interest that healthcare facilities whose patients have a lower severity of illness perform better than those whose patients "present with higher acuity."

"Overall, the performance of Firealdnds Regional Medical Center meets or exceeds the scores associated with state and national averages," Martin said.

She said the completion of the East Tower project should address issues cited as important in the patient satisfaction survey, such as privacy, a quiet environment and easier access to services.

Mercy Hospital of Tiffin received a rating of 62 percent for patient recommendations -- slightly below the state average of 65 percent and the national average of 67 percent.

President and CEO Dale Thornton said although patient satisfaction scores were lower, the hospital's quality scores are among the highest in the region.

He said he expects patient satisfaction to improve with the scheduled opening of new facility this July.

"While our patient satisfaction scores do not yet match our outstanding quality metrics, we welcome the opportunity to measure ourselves against other hospitals and fully expect to compare favorably with any hospital in the nation," he said.

Memorial Hospital in Fremont followed closely behind Mercy Hospital, with a score of 61 percent.

"Since this is the first time for public reporting, we were not sure what we were going to see," CEO and Chief Nursing Officer Sandi Foster said. "We're comfortable with the scores we got, but we have a lot of work to do. Most of our other scores were 65 percent and above, but one big thing I noticed is we have to be more quiet at night -- that's an area we have to work on."