How to Choose a Hospital When You Need Surgery

Silver Cross offers tips to making sure you are safe and well cared for

You just learned that you need to have surgery and your doctor is on staff at more than one hospital. Which hospital do you choose?

When selecting a hospital, it is important for patients to be aware of a hospital’s quality measures, surgical processes and patient satisfaction scores. Quite simply, research shows that some hospitals do a better job than others.

“Everyone wants to be safe when they are in the hospital,” says Paul Pawlak, President and CEO of Silver Cross Hospital. “But it is sometimes difficult for patients to determine whether or not their hospital is doing well.”

Quality Measures

Often the information is difficult to understand so the federal government has created websites to help consumers evaluate safety and compare hospital quality. To find out how area hospitals rank on important indicators including surgical care, infection rates and mortality (death) rates, the federal government has created a very easy to understand website for consumers at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

According to the federal government (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid), Silver Cross ranks in the top 10% of hospitals in the U.S. for making sure that surgery patients receive antibiotics within one-hour before incision. Research shows that patients who get antibiotics within the hour before their operation are less likely to get infections. Silver Cross also ranks higher than both the national and state average for all other surgical improvement and infection measures.

“Silver Cross’ success is due in large part to its staff continuously working on improving the care of surgical patients,” says Dr. Mark Danielson, Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Silver Cross Hospital. “The team has taken a hard look at all the processes and procedures used throughout surgery such as making sure that patients receive antibiotics before undergoing surgery to reduce the chance of any post-operative infections.”

Surgical Processes

In addition to finding out how hospital’s rank clinically, consumers should also ask what steps the hospital has taken to make sure their surgery will be safe. Does the hospital have a “Time-Out” process where before every procedure the surgical team stops and takes time to verify that they are performing the correct procedure on the correct patient and the correct part of the body? At Silver Cross, this is all confirmed before administering any medications or making the first incision.

“Patients should know that when they step through our doors, we do everything possible to ensure their safety,” said Pawlak.

There are many new resources for patients to check when making a decision about which hospital to choose for surgery. For example, the Surgical Care Improvement Project is a multi-year national campaign headed-up by the federal government, Joint Commission and other quality improvement organizations. It is aimed at reducing surgical complications by 25 percent by the year 2010. The Project recently released a “watch list” of hospitals that need to improve their surgical care procedures at www.cms.hhs.gov/QualityImprovementOrgs/downloads/HospitalChart.pdf.

Silver Cross was one of the first hospitals to join the Project and has been recognized for its contribution in improving surgical care practices around the country.

Patient Satisfaction

Finally, consumers should find out how other patients rated their hospital experience and quality of care. Many hospitals, like Silver Cross, measure patient satisfaction through a third party company such as Press Ganey. Press Ganey works with more than 7,000 health care organizations, including nearly 40% of U.S. hospitals to measure and improve their quality of care. Patients are sent a survey following their inpatient, outpatient, emergency, ambulatory surgery or other types of hospital care. Hospitals then use this feedback to make improvements on how care is delivered.

Beginning in March 2008, the government will begin sharing patient perspectives about their inpatient care at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. This is the same website that shows clinical performance. Silver Cross is in the pilot group for the new publicly reported information.

Although the information will be about 9 months old when originally posted, consumers can compare hospital performance on factors such as cleanliness, quietness, pain control, communication and responsiveness. The new public report will show the percent of patients that gave the most favorable response on a survey. Patients that rated their care any less than perfect will not have their data included in the report.

These patient satisfaction scores when combined with a hospital’s quality measures and continued improvement in its surgical care processes give consumers a clear picture about their hospital’s quality of care and safety. When faced with choosing a hospital for their surgical care, consumers should always check the following websites before making their decision.

• www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
• www.cms.hhs.gov/QualityImprovementOrgs/downloads/HospitalChart.pdf