News
Emerson Hospital ranked among Boston’s best hospitals
(CONCORD, Mass., April 18, 2008)--Emerson Hospital was recently ranked one of Boston’s best hospitals, according to a new national survey. Emerson was ranked fourth among Massachusetts hospitals in the percentage of patients who would recommend the hospital for care to their friends and family. The survey question is part of new data that is now publicly available about patients’ perceptions of their hospital care. The data, known as Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is available for consumers at www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov and provides insight into patients’ experiences during their hospital stay.
The new information will enhance the Hospital Compare Web site, which went live in 2005 and provides useful information that consumers can use to make decisions about their care. The site already includes data on how often hospitals provide important treatments for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical patients. Also available is mortality information for heart attack and heart failure patients and pneumonia patients who died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital. The new HCAHPS data from more than 2,500 hospitals across the country were collected from surveys given to random samples of patients after they left the hospital from October 2006 to June 2007. The standardized information allows consumers to compare hospitals in their area, in their state and across the country. The information will be updated quarterly, and most of the nation’s hospitals are expected to participate by the end of the year.
The new patient survey includes 27 questions, which were grouped into ten categories and reported on the Hospital Compare Web site as 10 composite scores: communication with nurses, communication with doctors, responsiveness of staff, pain management, communication about medication, cleanliness of hospital, quietness of hospital, discharge information, overall rating, and willingness to recommend. Hospital Compare highlights whether a particular aspect of care was “always” provided, which is the answer that most strongly indicates patients’ overall satisfaction. According to the survey data, 81 percent of patients would recommend Emerson Hospital, ranking it among the highest ratings, along with New England Baptist Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Newton-Wellesley Hospital, where more than 80 percent of those surveyed said they would recommend the hospital to someone else. According to Press Ganey, which administers the survey, Emerson’s data rank it in the top quartile in patient perceptions of quality. In other HCAHPS data from the fourth quarter of 2007 at Emerson, 86 percent of respondents indicated that nurses always treated them with courtesy and respect, 79 percent said that doctors always listened carefully to them, 80 percent said staff always did everything they could to help with pain, and 88 percent said they were given information about symptoms and problems to look for after they were discharged.
“We welcome the transparency, and we are happy to share data about the quality of care that we provide to our patients,” said Christine Schuster, Emerson Hospital president and CEO. “This information helps consumers to be active partners in their care. The survey questions are the same ones many people ask their family and friends when they have to choose a hospital, and the information is easily understandable by consumers. We are sharing this information because we hope patients will use it as one of the many factors that go into making important health care decisions.”
“Combining the insights from the HCAHPS patient experience of care survey with the clinical care information already available will give consumers a more comprehensive look at hospital care,” said Kevin Whitney, RN, MA, CNAA, vice president of patient care services/chief nursing officer at Emerson Hospital. “The HCAHPS data give us an opportunity to focus on areas of continued improvement as identified from the patient’s perspective. What patients experience during their hospital stay is an important part of the ongoing process to improve care.”
Hospital Compare is the result of the cooperation of members of the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), a landmark public-private partnership of hospitals, government agencies, quality experts, purchasers, consumer groups and other health care organizations. These organizations have joined together to develop a shared national strategy for hospital quality measurement. HQA is dedicated to making useful and understandable information about hospital quality available to the public and to helping hospitals use the information in their quality improvement efforts.
HQA created the site (www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov) to provide quality of care information to the public in a consistent, unified way.