SSH Emergency Department recognized for high patient satisfaction

2/17/2011

02/17/2011
Teresa Hicks
MSHA Communications Manager, Communications and Marketing
(423) 431-1313

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. – The emergency department of Sycamore Shoals Hospital (SSH) was recognized this month for a significant improvement in patient satisfaction scores. Press Ganey Associates, the health care industry’s recognized leader in health care performance improvement, presented hospital leaders with a certificate of recognition acknowledging the facility’s accomplishment. Press Ganey surveys are an important tool that Sycamore Shoals Hospital’s parent company, Mountain States Health Alliance (MSHA), uses to keep its finger on the pulse of patient satisfaction. Patients who received care in the ED at SSH were asked about several aspects of their experience, including the speed of treatment, the courtesy of the physicians and nurses and the quality of the clinical care they received. Each category is graded on a 100-point scale.

Over the past year, the emergency department’s score for waiting time to treatment has increased 16.6 points, and the score for waiting time to see a doctor has increased 16.7 points. The average arrival to room time is now 14 minutes, down from 32 minutes in July 2010.

“Press Ganey recognizes that the change in score was not random, but due to some change within the facility,” said Maggie Thompson, improvement manager for Press Ganey Associates.

“This recognition validates all the things that our performance improvement team has been working on for the last six months,” said Dwayne Taylor, Mountain States Health Alliance vice president and chief executive officer for SSH. “It’s not just us saying that something is different. Externally, people are noticing that it’s different as well.”

About Mountain States Health Alliance
Mountain States Health Alliance, a not-for-profit health care organization based in Johnson City, Tenn., operates a family of hospitals serving a 29-county, four-state region (Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Southeastern Kentucky and Western North Carolina). MSHA offers a large tertiary hospital, several community hospitals, two critical access hospitals, rehabilitation, a children’s hospital, a behavioral health hospital, home care and hospice services as well as a comprehensive medical management corporation. Its 13,500 team members, associated physicians and volunteers are committed to its mission of bringing loving care to health care. For more information, visitwww.msha.com.

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