ways to improve in-patient satisfaction

[evans_c1]

At our hospital we send out a survey after discharge to each patient. On the previous results to that survey, it was revealed that two areas were scored horribly among the nursing dept:

1. in-patient satisfaction

2. how well the nurses kept you informed

(they really go together if you think about it, though)

What I was wondering is if nurses from this site had any suggestions. Do you find that one thing works extremely well for "in-patient satisfaction" at your unit/hospital? have any of you had this problem and how was i addressed?

A couple of things that we have really taken seriously is a nurse from our unit doing daily rounds to welcome new patients and answer any questions/give the pt. a small hand out about our unit (Med-Surg Unit). Another thing is we have to move pt's around a lot bc we have a lot of semi-private (2-beds) rooms. This is done for multiple reasons: example we find out one has c-diff or we may have to combine two male patients in one room to make a female room. What we do is give the pt/family a gift certificate to our cafeteria for this common inconvenience.

We found the results of the survey extremely disheartening and are seeking ways to improve bc our institution is growing quite a bit and we really need to keep up w/ keeping the patients and families happy...I am open to any suggestions! Thanks!

[dcmonagh]

Greetings:)

I hope I'm not being presumtuous in posting- I'm not starting my PN classes until the Spring semester. My Mother is being discharged tomorrow after being in the hospital for a lower GI bleed. I can share some of what she and the family thought about the nursing care we recieved.

The night she was first admitted, it took several hours from ER to the room and to get the mediciation to stop bleeding started. Around midnight she had two very bad bleeds. My sister was in the hospital with her. That was probably a poor choice as she doesn't deal well with blood. After a paniced call from her, I arrived to find her in near hysterics and my mother pale and having tremors. She was convinced she was bleeding to death. There was no staff in the room. It seemed to me that she was a little in shock. (I'm sure there's a clinical definition of shock and I"m also sure that I don't know it yet:) )

I don't know what they were told, but they were convinced that no one had called a doctor and that no one was doing anything to help her. They called Physicans who were personal friends at 2:00am on the Dr's cell phones to get a doctor there. I'm sure that occurred because the nursing staff wasn't telling Mom or my sister what was going on and what they were doing.

I was unhappy with the nursing staff because there was no one there taking control of the situation. I'm sure there were things they needed to do to make sure she was taken care of. I do feel that SOMEONE professional should have been in there with them. I held Mom's hand, got her calmed down, calmed my sister down. The DR arrived wrote orders for her to go to ICU and for a blood transfusion. No one told us how long it would take to get her transferred, no one told us what the process would be to get blood, no one told us ( And I mean my mom or any family member) what was going on. I had to go to the nurses station and ask periodically to get any information.

It wasn't until she was placed in ICU and we talked with the ICU RN that we got information about whether she was stable and what the process for her treatment would be.Things went well from there. She was discharged a couple of days later.

2 days after discharge she was admitted again and placed on the Telemetry floor. That nurse kept us informed about what was going on. When the doctor needed to be called and was difficult to reach, he let us know. He let us know what he was doing every step of the way. I think he was absolutely fantastic. I do not feel that way about the nurse we had at the first admit.

Nurses and Doctors see Bleeds and things like that all the time I'm sure. Patients and their families don't. It's very scary to the patient and to the families. The more we know the better we are able to cope and help. Just a little time taken explaining can do wonders as to how a patient and their family are going to rate you.

Please remember this is just my opinion and your mileage may vary.

[banditrn]

"On our hourly rounding, we ask them the three P's - pain, potty, and position."

the three P's...that is awesome! Would it be okay if I suggested that to my management? I don't want to use it if you have a copyright or something, haha! That is so clever!

So you have found hourly rounding to be a great success on your unit?

Hourly rounds - does sound like a great idea! Don't think it would work in all situations, tho. It seems like oftentimes the greater amount of time is taken by a few, meaning the rest don't get their time.