Patient Satisfaction
 

We are focusing our efforts to improve your Harris County Hospital District experience.
The most important decision we've made is shifting from low to high gear.

Based on the Picker research, eight dimensions of care define quality through the patient's eyes.  They are:

• Respect for patient's values, preferences, and expressed needs: Patients indicate a need to be recognized and treated as individuals by hospital staff.  They are concerned with their illnesses and conditions and want to be kept informed.  An atmosphere respectful of the individual patient should focus on quality of life, involve the patient in medical decisions, provide the patient with dignity, and respect a patient's autonomy.
   

• Coordination and integration of care: Patients report feeling vulnerable and powerless in the face of illness.  Proper coordination of care can ease those feelings.  Patients identified three areas in which care coordination can reduce feelings of vulnerability.  They are: coordination of clinical care, coordination of ancillary and support services, and coordination of front-line patient care.
   

• Information and education: Patients express a fear that information is being withheld from them and that staff are not being completely honest about their condition and prognosis.  Based on patient interviews, hospitals can focus on three communication items to reduce these fears.  They are: information on clinical status, progress and prognosis; information on processes of care; and information to facilitate autonomy, self care and health promotion.
   

• Physical comfort: The level of physical comfort patients' report has a tremendous impact on their experience.  Three areas were reported as particularly important to patients.  They are: pain management, assistance with activities and daily living needs, and hospital surroundings and environment.
   

• Emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety: Fear and anxiety associated with illness can be as debilitating as the physical effects.  Caregivers should pay particular attention to anxiety over physical status, treatment and prognosis; anxiety over the impact of the illness on themselves and family; and anxiety over the financial impact of illness.
   

• Involvement of family and friends: patients continually addressed the role of family and friends in the patient experience, and often they expressed concern about the impact illness has on family and friends.  Family dimensions of patient centered care were identified as follows, accommodations provided family and friends; involving family and close friends in decision making; supporting family members as caregivers; and recognizing the needs of family and friends.
   

• Transition and continuity: Patients often express considerable anxiety about their ability to care for themselves after discharge.  Meeting patient needs in this area requires staff to provide understandable, detailed information regarding medications, physical limitations, dietary needs, etc.; coordination and planning of ongoing treatment and services after discharge; and providing information regarding access to clinical, social, physical and financial support on a continuing basis. 

Access to Care: Patients want access to care and are frustrated by the barriers they often encounter. Patients need access to different things depending on the setting of the care. In the hospital they want access and need to know when they can expect to have access.