Patient satisfaction scores cause for celebration

OSKALOOSA — Mahaska Health Partnership held an organization-wide celebration on Friday, Feb. 5, to congratulate physicians and staff for achieving excellent patient satisfaction scores in a national survey.

Leading the way was the MHP Specialty Group, which was ranked in the top 3 percent in overall customer satisfaction for a six-month period from July through December of 2009. According to MHP CEO Jay Christensen, patients from more than 600 medical practices throughout the U.S. were surveyed, and the MHP Specialty Group ranked in the 97th percentile in its overall facility score for customer satisfaction.

“Our care providers and nurses were both ranked at the 98th percentile, which is truly fantastic,” Christensen said. “Our family practice clinics, which include New Sharon Medical Center, ranked at the 99th percentile. Orthopaedics also ranked at the 99th percentile and Pediatrics ranked at the 95th percentile.”

The emergency department survey, which covered a six-month period from June to November of 2009, ranked MHP Emergency Services in the top 8 percent. This means that of the 1,700 large and small emergency facilities participating, MHP Emergency Services scored higher than 92 percent. 

“The Emergency Services physicians were ranked at the 96th percentile,” Christensen said. “These patient satisfaction results highlight the exceptional medical staff and support team we have at MHP and their commitment to service excellence, making health care personal for our patients and their families.”

According to Christensen, MHP also saw great improvement in the Inpatient and Outpatient scores, but there is still work to do.

“MHP made a commitment to patient satisfaction and clearly, the results show that our staff and providers have taken our desire to ‘Make Health care Personal’ to the next level. We know we can’t rest on our laurels, and even now we are continuously striving to do better and better,” he said.

“Our most recent six-month results are something to celebrate,” he added. “These numbers indicate that patient satisfaction at MHP is higher than ever, and as our Service Excellence projects continue gaining momentum, I am confident that we will continue to see our scores climb.”

Press Ganey partners with more than 10,000 health care organizations — including more than 40 percent of U.S. hospitals — to measure and improve their quality of care. Press Ganey receives information from millions of patients, employees and physicians every year to produce the most comprehensive data on service quality and safety culture.

Participation with Press Ganey is an option that Christensen said he and the Board of Trustees at MHP feel strongly about.

“Many initiatives we participate in, such as Press Ganey surveys and the Joint Commission, are voluntary. We believe choosing to subject ourselves to the more stringent standards of these organizations shows our commitment to providing high quality, personalized care to each of our patients,” he said.

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