Patients gave satisfactory marks to many San Fernando Valley-area hospitals in a survey, released today, that rated the'institutional bedside manner' of California medical facilities.
The patient survey - the largest comparison of local hospitalsever made public - asked patients to rank their overnight experiencein such categories as physical comfort, emotional support,coordination of care and transition to home.
Officials at about half the hospitals in the Valley regionvolunteered to ask patients to participate in the survey, and mostreceived an average rating from patients, saying they wouldrecommend their hospital.
'I think it validates what we think internally: We're a verycustomer- friendly hospital,' said Rick Miller, spokesman for WestHills Hospital & Medical Center, which got top marks for carecoordination and the involvement of family and friends.
The Patients' Evaluation of Performance in California or PEP-Csurvey, conducted by the Oakland-based California HealthCareFoundation and the California Institute for Health SystemsPerformance, was released today at www.calhospitals.com.
Survey analysts found that, across the state, patients gave above-average scores to 25 percent of hospitals and average scores to 57percent, and they rated 18 percent of their hospital experiencesbelow average.
Patients generally gave high marks for physical comfort, carecoordination and respect for personal preferences. Lower marks werehanded out for emotional support and information about side effectsto expect when they got home.
The authors of the survey stressed that the ratings were meant toassist hospitals in improving services and were not meant to assessclinical results - or to brand hospitals as 'good' or 'bad.'
'Patients, God love 'em, think that hospitals get the technicalthings right,' said Dr. Mark Smith, president and chief executiveofficer of the California HealthCare Foundation.
'But what they do know from direct experience is whether theiremotional needs were attended to, whether their pain was managed andwhether the transition to home was explained,' he said. 'It's a kindof institutional bedside manner, but (the survey) also says how gooda job they're doing at certain tasks.'
The survey, conducted by mail by the National Research Corp.,queried nearly 35,000 patients who had spent at least one night inan acute-care hospital between July and October of 2002. Of the 385licensed hospitals - with 470 hospital sites across the state - 181participated in the survey.
The California Healthcare Association, an industry advocate forhospitals, called the survey a harbinger of a coalition of federaland private industry patient surveys to be published beginning nextmonth.
'There is definitely a growing sentiment that hospitals need tobe more public in their evaluation of quality care,' said JanEmerson, spokeswoman for the association, who endorsed the PEP-Creport.
In the Valley and eastern Ventura County, patients gave averagemarks to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Kaiser PermanenteFoundation hospitals in Panorama City and Woodland Hills, NorthridgeHospital Medical Center's Roscoe Boulevard campus, West HillsHospital & Medical Center and Los Robles Regional Medical Center.
Officials contacted at each hospital said that, even with therisk of going public, they chose to have patients participate in thesurvey as a positive addendum to regular in-house studies on patientsatisfaction.
'Average scores - we're very pleased,' said Kris Carroway-Bowman, spokeswoman for Los Robles. 'My feeling was: Let's useanother source. Let's use the PEP-C thing. Let's see if our surveyswere right. They were.'
Only Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center got a below-averagescore on overall patient satisfaction with care.
'We feel we were brave enough to confront our strengths andweaknesses,' said Jami Feldstein, spokeswoman for Sherman OaksHospital, which also received below-average scores in respect forpatient preferences, physical comfort and transition to home.
'We thought it was a valuable tool to perform better.'
Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730
dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com
