The teammates of St. Luke’s Hospital are reaching for the stars in their quest to provide the very best hospital experience for patients, and they’ve grabbed quite a few, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In an effort to improve quality, satisfaction and transparency, CMS announced recently that it is using a five-star rating system to educate healthcare consumers on quality measures and “the patient experience.”

Using the standardized patient survey called the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), CMS is providing a simpler system to rate patient satisfaction and patients’ likeliness to recommend a hospital.

“We are very proud of the fact St. Luke’s Hospital received four out of five stars for overall performance,” said Ken Shull, chief executive officer for the local community hospital. “Our team is focused on providing a wonderful patient experience including a quiet, clean and safe environment for patient care, and this new score proves they are doing a great job!”

Only three hospitals in North Carolina received all five stars; none received the lowest rating with one star, but the majority of hospitals in the state averaged only three stars, according to CMS. The information is published at www.hospitalcompare.org, enabling a consumer to compare up to three hospitals for patient satisfaction and for quality measures.

“Star ratings are effective in making complicated information a little easier to understand,” Shull said, “but there’s a risk in oversimplifying an extremely complex system of providing quality care and meeting patients’ expectations. The HCAHPS survey asks questions about the patient experience from admission to discharge, and hospitals participating in Medicare are required to perform this standardized survey so patients can compare ‘apples to apples’.”

With the new rating system for patient satisfaction, stars are assigned for each domain (category) in the HCAHPS survey including “Likelihood of Recommending,” as well as for “Quiet” and for “Cleanliness.” The individual star scores for the domains are mathematically combined to create a Summary Star, which for St. Luke’s Hospital equated to four out of a possible five.

Although critical access hospitals like St. Luke’s Hospital are not required to participate in this national comparison, St. Luke’s board and administration believed it important to survey patients and report the scores.

“We believe in transparency and in the push for continued improvement in healthcare delivery,” Shull said.  “We can only improve if we have the data to work from, and we are all working towards improved patient safety and satisfaction by sharing and following best practices.”

CMS expects to apply the star rating to the quality measures in the next year, but until then, interdisciplinary teams representing various departments throughout St. Luke’s Hospital will continue to meet regularly to review patient satisfaction scores and comments as well as quality and safety measures with the intent of continuing to improve each patient’s experience.

“I’m proud of this recent report, but I’m not surprised.” Shull said. “This star rating shows that our community hospital compares favorably to many and stands above many others. It just proves again that our teammates and physicians at St. Luke’s Hospital are committed to providing exceptional care, close to home.”

Submitted by Kathy Woodham