Does LRMC Provide Quality Healthcare in Lehigh Acres That the Residents Expect.
CEO LRMC
According to an article written by Joanie Jeannette the CEO of Lehigh Regional Medical Center printed in the Lehigh Acres Citizen April 16, 2014 it states “It is obvious that Lehigh Regional exceeds many areas of quality care”, and “Lehigh Regional Medical Center works very diligently to exceed their patient’s satisfaction and ultimately change the perception of our facility.”
Jeannette quotes the hospital scores in the national reporting of Core Measures and the patient perception scores or “HCAPS.” These are federally mandated reports that are produced every quarter.
This can be seen on: www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare website. Jeanette states this website you will be able to see that Lehigh Regional exceeds many quality scores of other health systems in our area.
But that’s actual not true, if you look at the survey of patients’ experiences in the same website Lehigh Regional falls short in every category. Even Lee Memorial and Gulf Coast Medical Center get higher percent scores than Lehigh Regional.
The HCAHPS results posted on Hospital Compare allow consumers to make fair and objective comparisons between hospitals and with state and national averages, on important measures of patients’ perspectives of care.
The survey asks adult patients selected at random to give feedback about topics, such as how well nurses and doctors communicated, how responsive hospital staff were to patient needs, how well the hospital managed patients’ pain, and the cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment. According to Medicare.gov patients are the best sources of information on these topics.
Jeanette states, we want to hear if we are great or if we need to improve in some areas. We want to change the perception of Lehigh Regional and for everyone to be proud that we have this great facility for healthcare in our community.
Below is a samples of the Lehigh Regional vs Florida State average of survey of patients’ experiences section of the website.
Lehigh Reg State Avg
Patients who reported that their nurses “Always” communicated well
59% 75%
Patients who reported that their doctors “Always” communicated well
68% 77%
Patients who reported that they “Always” received help as soon as they wanted
48% 61%
Patients who reported that their pain was “Always” well controlled
52% 68%
Patients who reported that staff “Always” explained about medicines before giving it to them
42% 60%
Patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital
41% 68%