Health

Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 August 2014 01:09

Think back to the last time that you were sick in bed. What did you want? According to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems' (HCAHPS) Survey of Patients' Hospital Experiences, when people are in the hospital, they want prompt pain management; effective communication with their doctors and nurses; as well as clean and quiet rooms — and Monongahela Valley Hospital (MVH) is delivering that high level of care. In fact, the survey reports that MVH scores are at or above the national and state averages in each of the survey's categories. Additionally, in comparison to other hospitals in the region, MVH ranks significantly higher in 8 of those 10 categories.

The HCAHPS Survey of Patients' Hospital Experiences is a nationally standardized tool that measures patients' perceptions of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality created the survey to provide consumers with information that might be helpful in choosing a hospital. It asks discharged patients 27 questions about their recent hospital stays. Patients are asked to rate the frequency of events during their care using "never, sometimes, usually and always."

Highlights of the survey include:

· 86% of MVH's patients reported that nurses "always" communicated well compared to the national and state averages of 79%.

· 86% of the Hospital's patients indicated that their doctors "always" communicated well compared to the national and state averages of 82% and 80% respectively.

· 76% of the respondents said that they "always" received help as soon as they wanted which is significantly higher than the national and state averages of 68 and 67% respectively.

· • 76% of MVH's patients reported that their pain was "always" well controlled which is higher than the national average of 71% and the Pennsylvania average of 70%.

· 68% of patients responded that MVH staff "always" explained about medicine before giving it to them compared to the national average of 64% and the Pennsylvania average of 63%.

· 83% of the respondents said that at MVH their rooms and bathrooms were "always" clean compared to the national and state averages of 73%.

· 64% of patients said that the area around their rooms at MVH was "always" quiet at night compared to the national average which was 61% and the Pennsylvania average which was 54%.

· 86% of the respondents said that "yes," they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home which is higher than the national average of 85% and equal to the state average of 86%.

· 75% of patients gave MVH a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) compared to the 71% average of patients nationally who rated their hospitals 9 or 10s and 69% average in Pennsylvania.

· 71% of patients reported "yes," they would definitely recommend MVH, which is equal to the national average of respondents and higher than the 70% average in Pennsylvania who would recommend their hospitals.