NBH Earns Accolades for Patient Satisfaction

NORTH ADAMS — Northern Berkshire Healthcare (NBH) is a Top 10 performer in patient satisfaction among hospitals in Massachusetts, according to Press Ganey, the national patient-satisfaction surveying firm.

North Adams Regional Hospital placed in the top 10 for the fourth quarter of 2011, receiving high rankings from patients for responsiveness of hospital staff (third among Massachusetts hospitals), communication with nurses (seventh), and adequacy of discharge information (eighth). Thirty-five hospitals in Massachusetts participate in the Press Ganey satisfaction survey.

“Congratulations again to our staff, who work so hard to address our patients’ needs,” said Bill Frado, president of NBH. “We have hit several patient-satisfaction and quality milestones in the last year.  That’s due to everyone keeping their eye on the mark — employees in all areas of the organization.”

NBH surveys patients who are admitted as inpatients to the hospital’s medical/surgical unit, critical care unit, and the birthing center, as well as emergency patients.

Each of the top 10 performances was the result of responses to two or more questions on the patient survey.  For instance, ’responsiveness of hospital staff’ covers questions about how often patients received help getting to the bathroom as soon as they needed it how often assistance arrived after patients pressed call bells. Questions associated with ’communication with nurses’ asked patients if they felt they were treated with courtesy and respect, if nurses listened carefully, and if nurses offered explanations that were easily understood.

NBH also placed in the 99th percentile for overall patient satisfaction among critical-care unit and birthing center patients during 2011. The ranking means patients in those units were as happy as, or happier than, patients at more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. And the hospital achieved 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} compliance with national ’core measures,’ which are a set of about two dozen quality standards.

“By tracking core measures, we know if we’re taking all the right steps,” said Frado.  “The measures are also a good way to compare how well different hospitals provide quality care.  In 2011, NBH hit our target of 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} on core measures in at least three months.” NBH tracks quality measures for treatment of heart attack, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical outcomes.