|
KDMC Recognized as Top 10 Hospital |
The Baptist Healing Trust ranked the hospital fifth on its 2008 Top Ten Healing Hospitals in America, an annual study of non-profit hospitals that awards those that display "exceptional attention to loving care." The Baptist Healing Trust is a $100 million trust dedicated to advancing courteous, respectful and loving patient care in medical facilities across the country.
Trust President and Chief Executive Officer Erie Chapman said a six-member panel investigating the hospitals and various government data on  their patient satisfaction rankings found that KDMC scored more than 90 percent on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. That quality helped land the Brookhaven hospital on the list just behind the massive Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.
"King's Daughters scored exceptionally high in that area - one of the highest scores we saw," he said. "They've done an extraordinary job of creating a culture of loving care at KDMC, and that's what causes employees to go above and beyond the call of duty."
Other than KDMC's list-leading score on HCAHPS, Chapman pointed out another quality that sets Brookhaven's hospital apart - its size. KDMC is the smallest facility in the top five, and second smallest in the top 10.
The No. 1 hospital on the list - Mercy Gilbert Medial Center in Gilbert, Ariz. - is a 260-bed facility. The second-ranked St. Joseph of Orange Hospital in Orange, Calif., is a 525-bed facility with 3,800 employees, and third-ranking Griffin Hospital, of Derby, Conn., has 160 beds and 1,200 employees.
Baylor Medical Center leads the list with 1,000 beds and more than 5,000 employees. Brookhaven's hospital rounds out the top five with 122 beds and 327 employees.
But the HCAHPS score is the list's great equalizer.
"It's not a function of economics or how many MRI machines they've got, it's a function of the attitude and the way care is delivered," Chapman said. "Anyone who has been to a typical hospital knows how lousy the care is from a human standpoint. Sometimes, you go in with a pain in your side, and they're not in the least bit interested in that. They just want your name and tell you to sit down. That's not what we found at KDMC."
KDMC Chief Executive Officer Alvin Hoover said compassionate care has always been a focus at the hospital, and that making the Top Ten Healing Hospitals in America list was an affirmation of that focus. He said the hospital's HCAHPS score was the second-highest in the nation.
"We want to make sure each person here feels like they're the only person we're taking care of in our hospital," he said.
Hoover said KDMC was able to make the list because the staff's work instills confidence in the community.
"You want the people in your community to really believe in you, that they can have confidence in the care that's delivered right here at home," he said. "You don't have to travel out of town to get it. When you look at the list and see we're compared right alongside Baylor Medical Center, that's pretty good company to be in." | | ©The Daily Leader 2009 |
|
|
|
|
