Striving for the Best: Quality Update

The Quality Department, along with hospital and medical staff throughout Mammoth Hospital and Clinics work hard to ensure that our patients and their families experience high quality clinical care and are highly satisfied with the way we provide our services. We measure clinical outcomes, compliance with evidence-based best practice clinical guidelines, patient satisfaction, and internal efficiency to ensure we are providing quality care and are constantly striving to improve.

CMS 5 Star Rating

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded Mammoth Hospital a 5 Star Rating (out of 5 stars) for patient satisfaction. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) star ratings summarize patient experience, which is an important aspect of hospital quality. To be awarded 5 stars, the hospital has received in the last year at least 100 completed patient satisfaction HCAHPS surveys, scored highly in 11 different categories of patient satisfaction, and is compared to other similar hospitals. Only 155 out of 3,542 eligible hospitals received a 5-Star rating (Mammoth Hospital was one of three hospitals in California to receive a 5-Star rating). These patient satisfaction categories include measures such as pain management, nurse and physician communication, cleanliness and quietness of hospital rooms, quality of meals, and discharge communication. To view these measures and more, please go to the Hospital Compare website at www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare.

Emergency Department Press Ganey Awards: Guardian of Excellence, Pinnacle of Excellence

This fall the Emergency Department was awarded two major awards in patient satisfaction. They received the Guardian of Excellence in Patient Experiences for reaching the 95th percentile for each reporting period for the award year. Additionally, the Pinnacle of Excellence in Patient Experience award was granted to the Emergency Department for maintaining consistently high levels of excellence across multiple years – only 3 organizations in the country receive this award each year. These awards are the result hard work by the entire Emergency Department team, as well as other departments including Radiology, Laboratory, and Admitting. Our other nursing units are also achieving high patient satisfaction scores, including the inpatient units reaching the 99th percentile and the Ambulatory Surgery department reaching the 94th percentile.

Surgical Care

Mammoth Hospital offers a wide range of surgical services. Our clinical care of our surgical patients is aligned with evidence-based best-practices for surgical care, including antibiotic administration and prevention of blood clots, and is generally better than state and national averages. Currently our surgical site infection rate is 0.5% for all types of surgical cases. Relative to state and national rates, this is a very low rate. We do also occasionally treat infections caused by surgeries performed outside of Mammoth Hospital.

Patient and Family Centered Care

Mammoth Hospital and Clinics have started a program that involves the patient (and family) perspective of their experience throughout our healthcare services. By involving the perspectives and experiences of our patients and their families, we hope to improve the delivery of medical care, improve the patient experience through our services, and to reduce cost to both our patients and our healthcare system. Patient and Family Centered Care is realized in the form of a Patient and Family Advisory Council. Starting in January 2016, this council will meet regularly to discuss the patient and family experiences, opportunities for improvement, and the actual improvements themselves. The patients and their families will be the driving factors behind essential improvements that are made in the way we provide care.

Mammoth Hospital and Clinics are constantly striving to ensure you receive the best care and have the best experience with our services.