SEATTLE – (April 4, 2017) — Virginia Mason announced today it has received the 2017 Outstanding Patient Experience Award from Healthgrades, a distinction the medical center has earned for five consecutive years (2013-2017).

This award places Virginia Mason among the top 15 percent of hospitals nationwide, according to Healthgrades, an online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Healthgrades evaluated 3,489 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, covering admissions from April 2015 through March 2016.
 
“This award recognizes the commitment across our organization to always putting patients first in everything we do,” said Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO Gary S. Kaplan, MD. “I am proud of our team members’ dedication to ensuring a truly remarkable experience for each individual they serve.”

Patient experience spans the journey of care, from scheduling an appointment, to the day of the visit, to checking information online and receiving follow-up phone calls, he added. “From constantly striving for the best outcomes and the safest medical care to providing extraordinary service, we positively impact the patient experience in numerous ways,” Dr. Kaplan said.

Virginia Mason is the only hospital in the Pacific Northwest* to receive the America’s 50 Best Hospitals and Outstanding Patient Experience awards from Healthgrades in 2017.

To determine its Outstanding Patient Experience Award winners, Healthgrades analyzed hospitals’ performances by applying a scoring methodology to 10 patient experience measures, using data collected from a 32-question patient experience survey of each hospitals’ own patients. The survey questions focus on patients’ perspectives of their care in the hospital. The topics of these questions ranged from cleanliness and noise levels in patient rooms to factors such as pain management and responsiveness to patients’ needs. The measures also include whether a patient would recommend the hospital to friends or family.
 
To be recognized by Healthgrades, hospitals must meet eligibility requirements that, in addition to the number of survey responses, include clinical performance thresholds. Nationally, 2,941 hospitals met those requirements, with 443 hospitals outperforming their peers based on their patients’ responses.

“Patient experience and satisfaction metrics resonate with consumers as they evaluate hospitals and select where they want to receive care,” said Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer, Healthgrades. “We commend those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades 2017 Outstanding Patient Experience Award for their commitment to delivering superior care experiences to patients during a hospital stay.”

At Virginia Mason, teams work directly with patients to constantly improve the patient experience. For example, patients often participate in the medical center’s improvement workshops alongside clinicians and other staff members. Using the Experience-Based Design model, Virginia Mason teams focus on the perspectives and emotions of patients when they redesign processes to make them more efficient.

“Increasingly, we view patients and their families as our partners as we co-design health care processes together based on their feedback and needs,” Dr. Kaplan said. “It’s exciting to imagine where this important work will take us in the years ahead.”

For more information about Healthgrades, to download a copy of the report, or to get information about hospital and physician quality, visit www.Healthgrades.com/quality 

*Defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
 
About Virginia Mason Health System
Virginia Mason, founded in 1920, is a nonprofit regional health care system based in Seattle that serves the Pacific Northwest. In the Puget Sound region, the system includes 336-bed Virginia Mason Hospital; a primary and specialty care group practice of more than 500 physicians; regional medical centers in Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Federal Way, Kirkland, Issaquah and Lynnwood; Bailey-Boushay House, the first skilled-nursing and outpatient chronic care management program in the U.S. designed and built specifically to meet the needs of people with HIV/AIDS; Benaroya Research Institute, which is internationally recognized for autoimmune disease research; and Virginia Mason Institute, which trains health care professionals and others from around the world in the Virginia Mason Production System, an innovative management methodology for continually improving quality, safety and efficiency. Virginia Mason online: VirginiaMason.org

Virginia Mason Health System also includes Yakima-based Memorial Family of Services and Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital, a 226-bed facility serving the Yakima Valley in Central Washington since 1950. Memorial Family of Services comprises primary care practices and specialty care services, including high quality cardiac care, a continuum of cancer care, hospice care, and advanced services for children with special health care needs. Memorial online: YakimaMemorial.org

Media Contact:
Gale Robinette
Media Relations Manager
Virginia Mason Health System
(206) 341-1509
gale.robinette@VirginiaMason.org