Bluffton Hospital ranks first

Bluffton Hospital has the highest overall rating among hospitals in the area, according to a new Web site from The Ohio Department of Health.

 

The state’s Department of Health has launched a new Web site designed to provide helpful information that can play an important role in an evaluation of hospital quality, along with other sources including doctor recommendations.

 

The information on the Web site is collected from hospitals through an electronic data collection system twice a year on October 1^st and April 1^st. The Web site will be updated twice annually on January 1^st and July 1^st.

 

“The report is a great attempt to take a lot of complicated information and circumstances and get it into somewhat comparable data for the public to be informed and have another element from which to make decisions,” said Bluffton Hospital Chief Administrative Officer, Bill Watkins.

 

The two major indicators, patient rating and the percentage of patients who would recommend the hospital, are collected from random surveys. HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. The information allows consumers to make fair and objective comparisons between hospitals, and of individual hospitals, on ten important measures of patients’ perspectives of care.

 

-       Communication with nurses

-       Communication with doctors

-       Responsiveness of hospital staff

-       Pain management

-       Communication about medicines

-       Cleanliness of hospital environment

-       Quietness of hospital environment

-       Discharge information

-       Overall rating of hospital

-       Willingness to recommend

 

Bluffton Hospital has an 89% patient rating and 88% of patients would recommend the hospital to others.

 

This data in this report is another confirmation of the level of commitment Bluffton Hospital its associates, medical staffs and volunteers have made to quality care and service. The confirmation comes when comparing this data coupled with this hospital receiving the Summit Award for service from Press Ganey in November 2009. We are proud to provide local access to this level of hospital care based on our patients’ feedback.

 

The information is available by visiting The Ohio Department of Health’s Web site at www.odh.ohio.gov.