Back to SearchPatient satisfaction for acute care and emergency care services for overall care received at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) hospital sites continues to rank above provincial averages for Ontario community hospitals, according to a recent independent study.
The three-month survey, conducted from January 1 to March 31, 2014 indicated a 94.9% overall satisfaction rate by acute care patients and a 90.6% overall satisfaction rate by emergency care patients at MAHC’s two hospital sites. The provincial averages for Ontario community hospitals were 92.7% for acute inpatient care and 85.5% for emergency care.
“As we continue to work toward a patient- and family-centered care philosophy, these results are helping us to gage the patient experience,” says Natalie Bubela, Chief Executive Officer at MAHC. “While we are pleased to rank above provincial averages, we are also keen to further improve our care and have identified a new target in our 2014/15 Quality Improvement Plan that aims to achieve 85% response ‘Yes, definitely’ to the ‘Would you recommend our services?’ question.”
Five questions have been added to MAHC’s satisfaction surveys to gather more information about the provision of patient- and family-centered care. These include whether the provider introduced themselves, shared information on how long testing would take, provided an adequate explanation of the health problem, and collaborated with others to ensure all information was shared satisfactorily.
The measurement of standardized patient satisfaction for acute inpatient services and emergency departments is conducted by the Ontario Hospital Association’s surveying partner National Research Corporation (NRC), using the Picker Institute survey instrument. NRC randomly selects 25 acute care patients and 100 emergency care patients at each hospital site to evaluate their patient experience. Patients were asked their opinion on dimensions of care like the quality, access and coordination, their physical comfort and the conditions of their environment, the courtesy of staff and physicians, sharing of information and overall impressions.
On all of these dimensions of care combined, MAHC scored 76.8% for emergency care, compared to the Ontario community hospital average at 66.9%. For acute care, MAHC scored 79.9% compared to the Ontario community hospital average at 74.0%.
Participating in this survey program allows each hospital to compare patient satisfaction results and helps to foster continual improvements in patient care locally.
The full results are available on MAHC’s website.
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