Five stars for Northwest Specialty Hospital
Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls has been awarded five stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This is the seventh consecutive year the hospital has earned five stars for patient experience. From left: quality and risk manager Becky DeMers, financial analyst J.J. Turbin, CEO Rick Rasmussen and CFO Brian Brigham.
DEVIN WEEKS/Press
POST FALLS — Northwest Specialty Hospital has been recognized for emphasizing the "care" in health care.
The Post Falls hospital has earned the highest marks — five stars — from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, based on patient input gathered in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems annual survey. The survey is administered to a random sample of adult patients across all types of medical conditions between 48 hours and six weeks post-discharge.
The Post Falls hospital received the good news mid-August. This is the seventh consecutive year Northwest Specialty Hospital has received five stars for quality patient experience. CMS recognizes it as one of the highest quality hospitals in the nation. Northwest Specialty Hospital is one of less than 10% of hospitals in the country to win the coveted five-star award.
“There's all sorts of awards in every single industry, top to bottom, health care included," Northwest Specialty Hospital CFO Brian Brigham said Thursday. "However, what makes this different, I think, is this is from CMS, which is the government. You can’t buy these awards or lobby for these awards. They are objective measures based on surveys. We consider these to be the gold standard of the awards."
The survey asks questions about communication, responsiveness of staff, cleanliness, discharge information, care transition and if the patient would recommend the hospital to others.
Results showed that 90% of patients reported yes, they would definitely recommend Northwest Specialty. Hospital CEO Rick Rasmussen said that's the big one.
"The Idaho average is 70, the national average is 60-something," he said. "We feel very honored that the community has trust in us. We have a slogan of ‘patients first.’ We believe that."
Northwest Specialty also scored a 93% for patients who reported that yes, they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home; 88% of patients who gave the hospital a rating of nine or 10 on a scale of zero to 10 (lowest to highest); 87% for patients who reported that nurses always communicated well; and 86% for patients who reported that their doctors always communicated well.
Quality and risk manager Becky DeMers said Northwest Specialty follows up with every patient, and always works to make it right whenever someone is unhappy with their experience.
"If there’s any little thing, whether it has to do with clinical care, or their bill, or their meal, we call them and try to make it right," she said. "We want everybody to have an excellent patient experience.”
Northwest Specialty's thoughtfulness extends beyond a patient's stay. A thank-you card is sent to each patient as a token of appreciation.
"It’s signed from the front desk to their nurse in pre-op, to their OR nurse team, to their recovery team, to in-patient," Rasmussen said. "Just thanking them for trusting us with their health care."
Established in 2003, Northwest Specialty Hospital is one of only 238 physicians-owned-and-operated facilities in the country. It has 450 employees and will see more than 100,000 patients this year.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Info: www.cms.gov