EMA » Hospital Administrators » Reasons to Select EMA » Patient Satisfaction

Patient Satisfaction

EMA has a long tradition and an excellent reputation for providing superior clinical care with unparalelled levels of patient satisfaction.  We have recognized the importance of creating a culture of teamwork that focuses on customer service as a primary goal.

We have acknowledged that as the competition in the health care industry intensifies, the ability to meet the needs of our patients and their families becomes paramount in order to help our hospital clients grow their market share and reputation.  The Emergency Department, once seen only as “the window to the community,” is now known to be “the door to the hospital.”  Recent industry statistics show that on average 40% of a hospital's inpatient admissions come in through the Emergency Department. It interacts with a larger number of patients and members of the community than any other clinical service that a hospital offers.

Many EMA client hospitals have been able to achieve peer group rankings greater than the 90th percentile in patient satisfaction as measured by a national survey.  High levels of patient satisfaction cannot just be wished into existence.  We have been able to accomplish superior results by the following means:

• An intense operational focus on improving every aspect of the patient encounter in our practice settings, from the reception/triage process to turnaround time of diagnostic studies to facilitated disposition of patients for discharge or admission
• Creation of a patient satisfaction training program – “Achieving First Class Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction” - to educate ED staff including physicians, nurses, clerical and ancillary personnel about the “whys and how-tos” of patient satisfaction
• Development of a Pain Management Program to make pain a “5th vital sign” (along with temperature/pulse/respiratory rate/blood pressure), to better respond to patient needs for comfort, privacy and respect
• Implementation of scripts (“Words of Wisdom”) to improve communication so that physicians and health care personnel use words which clearly transmit their caring and compassion
• Utilization of information technology tools - EDIM (Emergency Department Information Manager) and WEBEMARS (Emergency Medicine Analysis and Reporting System) - to measure outcomes of care to promote performance improvement

EMA sees high patient satisfaction as a primary differentiating factor in helping our client hospitals develop a brand name product in emergency services.