Bluffton Hospital Wins National Patient Satisfaction Award

Bluffton Hospital has received the 2009 Press Ganey Summit Award, a national award given to health care facilities that sustain the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years, according to Bill Watkins Bluffton Hospital CAO.

Bluffton Hospital was one of only 32 inpatient hospitals in the United States to receive the 2009 award.

According to Press Ganey Associates, Inc., Bluffton Hospital has ranked in the 99th percentile nationally for inpatient satisfaction for more than three consecutive years.

"Our associates have made a commitment to service excellence and hold themselves and others accountable to that commitment," said Watkins.

"It is gratifying to see that our patients' feedback and the Press Ganey scores reflect the efforts we've made since 2005."

The Press Ganey Summit Award is the health care satisfaction industry's most coveted symbol of achievement.

Details about the award follow:

Area of Focus

Bluffton Hospital began using Press Ganey to measure patient satisfaction in the second quarter of 2004.

Inpatient, excluding our Obstetrics Department which has consistently been at the 99th percentile, was in the 45th percentile. The hospital needed to restructure its delivery of health care to meet patients' service needs.

Actionable Steps We conducted various methods of research into customer service in health care for a method of implementation that was conducive to understanding and action for everyone in the hospital. From the research we adopted a Formula for Success:

• Conducted associate and physician surveys in addition to patient surveys
• Adopted a multidisciplinary approach to our careers, with each associate acknowledging the opportunity and responsibility we have to make a difference in someone's life
• Gold Coin Award for associate-to-associate recognition
• Leadership commitment
  • Clear expectations established
    • Associate orientation specific to Bluffton Hospital
    • Defined leadership at each associate level
  • Celebrations such as physician and associate breakfast
  • Personal handwritten notes of appreciation and recognition
  • Transparency in communications for all audiences
  • Department-hosted celebrations
  • Consistent rounding strategy with regular associate and physician
    forums
• Associate-driven theme process and procedure using an "Owners
  Team" model

ROI Success is significant.

• Inpatient satisfaction scores moved from the 38th percentile to the 99th
• Expectation and discipline in service has produced positive results across the hospital
• Ambulatory Surgery has moved from the 48th percentile to the 90th
• The Emergency Department started at the 43rd percentile and has now scored at the 99th percentile for the past eighteen months

Associate and medical staff satisfaction is equally notable.

• In 2005, Bluffton had 90 percent participation in the associate satisfaction survey. The percentile rank was 52nd in the AHA Region 5 database and 82nd in the all facility database
• In 2007, Bluffton had 100 percent participation and a percentile rank of 93 in AHA and 88 in the all facility. The focus was job security, participation, teamwork, and recognition
• Associate involuntary turnover was less than 2 percent, while voluntary turnover was about 5.9 percent, well below industry benchmarks
• Associate fund-raising goal exceeded by 71 percent and medical staff fund-raising goal exceeded by 18 percent toward the planned facility renovation-the result of participation and ownership

Quality of care measures

• Clinical quality indicators never fell below the 90th percentile with some at 100 percent compliance
• Medication errors were cut in half
• Leapfrog National Efficiency Ranking placed Bluffton Hospital in the 2nd percentile nationally
• We celebrated with our community 99 percentile in our 99th year throughout our centennial year of service