Parkview Huntington Hospital’s chief operating officer, Darlene Garrett, traveled to New Orleans to share a story to a national audience about impressive trends in healthcare happening right here in Huntington.
She and Holly Sale, director of the hospital’s Rehabilitation and Wellness Department, Physicians Specialty Clinic and service excellence, were invited to share the hospital’s service excellence story at the tenth annual Professional Research Consultant’s Client Education Conference, May 3-6, in New Orleans, La. Other leaders from Parkview Health also were featured speakers at the conference.
Parkview Huntington Hospital’s leaders presented a breakout session titled “Organizational Engagement: Our Key to Excellence,” to show how its employees, engaged at many levels in the organization, worked together to improve patients’ perception of care for its Inpatient, ER and Outpatient Surgery departments.
Parkview Huntington Hospital improved its scores from 2006 to 2008 in all three departments, with each department ranking in the top 10 percent of the nation for 2008. Inpatient ranked in the 96th percentile, ER in the 91st percentile and Outpatient Surgery scored in the 97th percentile.
“The steps taken in our journey included establishing key planning procedures upfront, celebrating milestones along the way, making difficult decisions and engaging key stakeholders and groups such as our physicians, managers and frontline team members,” said Garrett. “The 2008 scores are very impressive trends.”
Patients who receive care at Parkview Huntington Hospital are selected at random and contacted by researchers at Professional Research Consultants (PRC). The surveys help the hospital to determine what it can do to better meet the healthcare needs of the communities it serves.
Mike Packnett, president and CEO, Parkview Health; Mark Nafziger, chief operating officer, Parkview Health; and Rick Henvey, senior vice president of service excellence, Parkview Health, will present “Raising Patient Loyalty Through Staff Accountability Programs,” and will focus on how they have implemented and achieved high-reaching patient loyalty goals. The presentation will also feature the health system’s history, how goals have been set, the meaning of service excellence, and tools and processes used in employee engagement.
Each year, PRC presents its top award to one organization or individual that has made an extraordinary contribution to healthcare over the past year. Parkview was chosen as the 2009 recipient of the President’s Award for gains in patients’ perception of care and how the health system went about achieving the gains. Parkview was also recognized for engaging employees, developing initiatives centered around excellence and facing challenges head-on.