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Business North - The Daily Briefing - Business Newspaper Online
Bigfork Valley Hospital ranks No. 1 in Minnesota patient satisfaction survey
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5/1/2008 by Beth Bily |
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Survey results posted Tuesday, April 29, on the Minnesota Hospital Quality Report Web site confirm what Bigfork Valley Hospital officials say they have known all along: the care provided is top notch in the eyes of their patients.
The rural hospital located in Bigfork, MN ranked No. 1 in the state on a comprehensive assessment question regarding care: “Would patients recommend the hospital to friends and family?” Ninety-four percent of patients surveyed reported they would recommend Bigfork Valley.
In Northeastern Minnesota, St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth ranked No. 2 with 73 percent of respondents reporting they would recommend the hospital to friends and family. The favorable response from others: St. Luke’s in Duluth, 72 percent; Fairview University Medical Center-Mesabi in Hibbing, 65 percent; Grand Itasca in Grand Rapids, 62 percent; Virginia Regional Medical Center, 62 percent; Falls Memorial, International Falls, 57 percent. The statewide average response was 70 percent.
Other questions in the patient satisfaction survey rated hospitals based on healthcare provider/patient communications, how quickly hospital staff responded, pain control, quietness in the patient area, cleanliness and the quality of information given to patients for a good recovery once home.
Bigfork Valley also fared well on other patient assessment questions, ranking at the top among the region’s hospitals on nine of 10 patient assessment questions.
“I’m not surprised we ended up high but I am surprised we ended up so high, given the overall high quality of healthcare in hospitals in Minnesota,” said Bigfork Valley CEO Dan Odegaard.
The data were collected from October 2006 to June 2007 from a national survey called the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. The survey was developed by the Hospital Quality Alliance, of which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a partner. Participation in the patient satisfaction survey by hospitals was voluntary, said Bigfork Valley spokeswoman Sally Sedgwick.
The quality results reported on the Minnesota Hospital Quality Report Web site divides care assessments into two parts, patient assessment and quality assessment.
Quality of care assessments were based upon delivery of established best practices in heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. Data for this portion of the survey was collected and reported by the federal government. Like other small hospitals in the survey, Bigfork Valley had an insufficient number of cases sampled to reliably indicate performance.
Results for all Minnesota hospitals and other hospitals in the region are available at www.mnhospitalquality.org. The Web site was developed through a partnership of the Minnesota Hospital Association and Stratis Health, a quality improvement organization, to provide Minnesotans with greater access to healthcare information.
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