By Karen Shideler

Mar. 29, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Via Christi Regional Medical Center and Wesley Medical Center both get so-so grades for patient satisfaction on a Web site unveiled Friday.

The patient satisfaction information was added to the Hospital Compare site, which already allowed consumers to see how well area hospitals do in providing recommended care to surgical patients and those being treated for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia.

Spokesmen for the hospitals said the patient satisfaction information gives consumers additional information -- but should be only one factor in making decisions.

Via Christi and Wesley are the only Sedgwick County hospitals for which patient satisfaction information is available. Not all hospitals participated in the survey during the period on which the first report is based.

The Web site is a tool of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the update unveiled Friday includes average Medicare payments to hospitals, to give pricing comparisons.

That pricing information is available for Via Christi, Wesley, Galichia Heart Hospital, Kansas Heart Hospital, Kansas Spine Hospital and Kansas Surgery & Recovery Center. It shows pneumonia treatment payments range from $5,000 to $6,200; a back fusion from $13,600 to $17,200.

The patient satisfaction numbers are based on surveys sent to random patients. They ask questions such as how often nurses or doctors treated them courteously, how clean their rooms were and how quickly calls for help were answered.

Via Christi and Wesley scored highest in the survey for providing information about what to do during recovery at home: 84 percent of Via Christi patients and 74 percent of Wesley patients said they got that information.

They scored lowest in the category of quiet rooms: 34 percent of Via Christi patients and 42 percent of Wesley patients said their rooms were always quiet at night.

Of the eight other measures on the survey, the two hospitals' scores ranged from the 40s to the 70s. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have said all hospitals should strive for scores of 100 percent.

John Marker, interim chief nursing officer at Wesley, and Francie Ekengren, chief medical officer there, cautioned that the numbers are based on surveys taken between October 2006 and June 2007.

"We had a dry run at it in 2006," Ekengren said. "The numbers were not where we wanted them to be," so several changes already have been put in place. Those include "bedside reporting," in which nurses do end-of-shift updates at the beds of patients.

The patient satisfaction information is to be updated quarterly, and Marker said the next report should show better numbers -- but will still be six months behind.

Via Christi's Saad Ehtisham, senior vice president for clinical operations, said, "Consumers are looking for greater transparency from their providers as they choose where they'd prefer to go for care. For patients and their families, this is one more way for them to get the information they want as they make their decisions.

"For us, their responses help guide us as we look at what's working well and where we need to make improvements. Like most indicators, however, it's only a snapshot in time."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Secretary Mike Leavitt said Friday that the information is designed "to help give consumers more choice about the quality of their health care and how they may be able to lower their health care costs."

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0218-24109884