St. Mary’s Hospital was just named by Press Ganey Associates, Inc, as a 2011 Success Story Award® winner! Press Ganey currently partners with more than 10,000 health care facilities — including 50% of all U.S. hospitals — to measure and improve the quality of care that providers deliver to patients and, ultimately, to improve the overall health care experience.
The Success Story Award recognizes facilities that have demonstrated leadership, implemented organizational change and improved performance. The Press Ganey Success Story Award is a highly regarded symbol of achievement in the health care industry. It is awarded annually and St. Mary’s is one of nine organizations to receive this honor in 2011. Specifically, it is one of six organizations to receive the award for patient satisfaction performance.
Robert Draughon, Press Ganey’s CEO noted, "We are proud to partner with St. Mary’s Hospital. Their innovative approach to improving patient satisfaction helps to advance the quality of health care throughout South Central Wisconsin.”
“We set a bold dream, envisioning a patient utopia: an emergency waiting room where no one waits,” said Theresa Ojala, director of the St. Mary’s Hospital emergency department. “And after initiating and sustaining a complete cultural shift to a team-based system, which saw patient satisfaction scores rise from below the 50th percentile to above the 90th percentile, we’re so proud to be accepting this award!”
St. Mary’s emergency department started its revamp in 2007 when door-to-doc times – or the time it takes to see a doctor once you walk in the door – were greater than 50 minutes on average. Average wait times are now 14 minutes or less! Helping lead the way to higher patient satisfaction and speedy wait times are the fact that registration is now done at the bedside and care teams consisting of a lead nurse, two primary nurses, a physician and technician all work together to care for a patient which also means information only has to be shared with the care team once rather than multiple times throughout the visit.