Awards
Hills & Dales General Hospital - Cass City, Michigan
Compass Award Winner: Outpatient Services Less Than 75,000 Procedures
Hills & Dales General Hospital is a rural, not-for-profit, critical access hospital located in Cass City, Michigan. The hospital currently has 25 licensed beds and 55,000 annual visits.
Area of Focus
When Hills & Dales General Hospital embarked on a $10 million renovation, we quickly realized that maintaining our high level of patient satisfaction would be a challenge. We needed to renew our efforts to provide the friendly atmosphere, quality of testing, and quick turnaround our patients had come to expect.
Actionable Steps
Since the construction disrupted the normal traffic flow within the hospital, every employee was committed to walking patients to their destination. Once registered, patients were escorted to the appropriate location by a member of the Laboratory or Radiology team. This new program was so well received that we decided to continue it after the construction.
In an effort to reduce the burden placed on patients, Radiology staff were trained on how to start an IV. As a result, patients needing an IV for a procedure no longer had to go to the Emergency Department first. In addition, Laboratory began visiting patients in Radiology to draw blood, which meant that patients no longer had to go to three different departments to have the same work done. These simple changes demonstrated to our patients that we were putting them first, and were continued after the renovations were completed.
ROI
Hills & Dales General Hospital has been able to realize a substantial return on its investments—CT revenue has increased by 25%. We now have a state-of-the-art 64-Slice CT Scanner that produces the highest quality result. Our read time is 24 hours or less and our level of service to our patients is impeccable.
We have also succeeded in creating a positive work environment. Employees are truly happy to come to work because they know patients are returning as a result of having a satisfying experience. Physicians are referring patients in greater numbers and the physical work environment is pleasing. As a testament to the fact that our culture is changing for the better, employee turnover has been reduced to less than 5%.
Since partnering with Press Ganey in 2006, we have been able to gain a deeper understanding of our patients’ perspectives. We generate reports through eCompass on a regular basis. The information contained in them has proven invaluable in helping us determine exactly where and how to use our available resources from a monetary and personnel standpoint.
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