Patient Surveys

At Pine Medical Center, we take surveys of our emergency room and hospital patients every six months. The surveys are conducted by a nationwide healthcare consulting firm, Professional Research Consultants of Omaha, Neb.

Here are some highlights from the results of 200 randomly selected patients who were treated in the emergency room between July 2007 and June 2008, compared with what patients said about other emergency rooms across the United States:

• Our overall quality of care was above average for ERs in both hospitals of the same size and all hospitals.
• Our pain management ranked significantly higher than similar ERs.
• Our overall teamwork ranked above average for both our peers and all emergency rooms.
• Our nurses' understanding and caring ranked significantly higher than ERs in hospitals of the same size – and slightly higher than all emergency rooms.
• Our discharge instructions ranked higher than our peers and all hospitals.

A survey of 95 patients who were admitted to the hospital during the same period showed these results:

• Our overall quality of care improved over 2006 and 2007 and exceeded inpatient averages of all hospitals.
• Our doctors' instructions and explanations of treatments and tests also improved significantly from two years ago.
• Our nurses' communication with patients and family ranked higher than similar hospitals and all hospitals.
• Our discharge process also outranked our peers and all hospitals.
• Our hospital staff's courtesy and friendliness was significantly higher than our own 2006 score as well as our peers and all hospitals.