At a recent department managers meeting at Hancock Medical, the hospital managers celebrated some scores that showed Hancock Medical at or above the state and national average for quality care core measures.

What does that mean exactly?

Well, to the department managers it means the hard work and dedication put in by doctors, nurses, clinicians and other medical professionals to continually improve patient outcomes is resulting in excellent patient care at Hancock Medical.

Transparency is a buzzword in health care these days and Hancock Medical is proud to point people to the CMS web site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov) which reveals, for anyone interested in hospital performance, the “core measure” scores for hospitals around the state and nation.

“We’re very proud of our efforts,” said Susan Stevens, Director of Quality Resources at Hancock Medical. “In most of the categories, Hancock Medical scores as good as or better than the state and national averages.”

For example, in the category “Percent of Surgery Patients Whose Doctors Ordered Treatments to Prevent Blood Clots for Certain Types of Surgeries,” Hancock Medical scored 97 percent compared to the national average of 80 percent.

In the category “Percent of Heart Failure Patients Given an Evaluation of Left Ventricular Systolic Function,” Hancock Medical scored 100 percent compared to the national average of 86 percent.

Stevens points out that Hancock Medical is accredited by the Joint Commission and also voluntarily participates in State Health Care Quality Improvement Projects.

“We’re always striving to be better and we do that by responding to patient experience surveys which help us to focus our improvement efforts,” she said.

Hancock Medical improvement efforts involve an interdisciplinary team process that includes medical staff, nurses, dietitians and other health care professionals at the hospital working together to evaluate patient experiences and outcomes.

“Every department in the hospital identifies elements of performance that they can improve,” said Stevens. “The quality improvement process not only benefits patients, but also can increase job satisfaction among employees. Job efficiency and patient satisfaction go hand in hand.”

Hancock Medical Risk Manager Robin Barnett heads up Hancock Medical’s voluntary participation in the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators that studies indicators such as nurse turnover, nursing care hours, patient days, patient falls, pressure ulcer prevalence, restraint prevalence and RN education.

 “The idea is to improve patient care and at the same time job satisfaction among the nursing staff,” said Barnett. “Hancock Medical is doing a good job and it’s reflected in our scores.”

 Stevens points out that quality improvement in health care is an ongoing challenge that Hancock Medical will continue to meet head on.

 “We encourage the public to evaluate the quality of services available by researching the informational web sites and responding to patient experience surveys following hospital stays,” she said. “Together, we will continue striving for excellence and make Hancock Medical the best that it can be.”