The National Research Corporation names St. John Health System a 2012 Consumer Choice Award Winner.
St. John Vice President of Quality and Safety Lisa Medina says one reason she believes St. John has received the recognition is a policy of increased communication with patients and families: “not just waiting for them to ask questions, but to anticipate, doing a lot more anticipating of what the patients need, and what their families are wanting to hear.”
Medina says focus groups with patients have helped the hospital make changes like ensuring a staff member visits a patient’s room at least every hour.
“We’re always in there for what they need, and if they call us,” she said, “but if we can go in on an hourly basis, just to check on them, even if they don’t need something, it allows them to feel much more secure, and it gets them what they need much faster.”
The award comes a little more than a year after officials announced incentives for better patient satisfaction under the Affordable Care Act. Those incentives went into effect this month.
Medina says that while that initiative wasn’t a factor in originating new ideas, it’s helped speed up implementing some of those better communication and stronger staff presence practices.
“It’s just one more thing, one more reason, that we can point to when we’re talking about it internally and externally,” she said. “It’s not just us talking about it now.”