News
Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center Receives Press Ganey Summit Award
SMSC one of three hospitals in California to receive prestigious patient satisfaction award
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., November 24, 2009 - Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center (SMSC) is proud to announce that Press Ganey Associates, Inc. has named it a 2009 Summit Award Winner. Press Ganey currently partners with more than 10,000 health care facilities—including over 40% of U.S. hospitals—to measure and improve the quality of their care. The company’s databases are the largest in the industry, and allow facilities nationwide to benchmark their results against peer organizations. The Summit Award recognizes top performing facilities that sustain the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years. The Press Ganey Summit Award is the health care satisfaction industry’s most coveted symbol of achievement bestowed annually, and SMSC is just one of the nation’s 74 organizations to receive this prestigious honor in 2009. SMSC is one of only three hospitals in California to receive the award.
According to Jacci Sterling, SMSC’s assistant administrator, chief nursing officer and perinatal director, the award was as much a result of SMSC’s culture as its specific policies and practices. New hires and all staff are coached in Patient/Family Centered Care principles that teach the importance of the patient’s perception of quality and care and gives them the tools to handle conflicts. Staff satisfaction drives patient satisfaction and SMSC’s excellence in this area is evidenced by their recent ranking as 20th in Modern Healthcare magazine’s “Best Places to Work in Healthcare.”
“We know that employee satisfaction goes hand in hand with patient satisfaction,” Sterling says. “And we have a very satisfied staff as shown in annual staff surveys. We truly believe that patient satisfaction must be an institutional goal that is modeled from top management down and included as a performance expectation for the staff.”
SMSC also maintains some environmental choices to promote healing and caring, including:
- No overhead paging, except for codes.
- Twenty-four hour room service for all patient meals, no food tray lines.
- “Guest Services” employees are members of the Patient Centered Health Care Team who welcome patients, clean rooms, and deliver meals.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) for Health Care, Research and Education is a not-for-profit health care organization that is a pioneer in the multispecialty group practice of medicine providing quality medical care in Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. PAMF Santa Cruz coordinates the provision of integrated health care with Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center and the VNA of Santa Cruz. PAMF Santa Cruz provides Santa Cruz County residents with general health care, family medicine, urgent care, primary care and health care specialists. The 30-bed Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center offers state-of-the-art perinatal and medical/surgical services combining the luxury of a fine hotel with the safety and security of a licensed accredited acute care hospital. The VNA of Santa Cruz, a bilingual/bicultural organization, provides quality, compassionate, skilled care to homebound patients throughout Santa Cruz County.
All three organizations are part of the Sutter Health family of not-for-profit physician organizations and hospitals that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality. Serving more than 100 communities in Northern California, Sutter Health is a regional leader in cardiac care as well as care of women and children, and is a pioneer in advanced patient safety technology. For more information about Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center, please visit www.suttermatsurg.org.
About Press Ganey Associates, Inc.
For more than twenty years, Press Ganey Associates, Inc. has been committed to providing insight that allows health care organizations to improve the quality of care they provide and their financial performance. The company offers the largest comparative customer feedback databases, actionable data, solution resources, and unparalleled customer service. Press Ganey currently partners with more than 10,000 health care facilities—including over 40% of US hospitals—to measure and improve the quality of their care.
Contact
Mark Riley
Palo Alto Medical Foundation
(831) 460-6034
rileym1@pamf.org
