Dear ABrammer, I am not one that has been in hospitals as a patient, but one that has worked in many facilities over the years.
I am sorry to read about your health problems which force you to be in and out of these facilities. You did mention "chronic" conditions and usually hospitals are not the place for chronic conditions unless a complication occurs from a chronic condition. Most hospitals are designed to receive "acute" and trauma type of cases or scheduled surgeries.
But going back to your question, I think that hospitals are not a place most people want to be. However from professional experience there are a few patients that earned the nickname "E.R.frequent flyers" Most of these patients have a personal need (i.e emotional, social) met by being in a hospital E.R. and may not care whether it is clean or new. Others use the E.R. as an "urgent care center" (which is causing big financial stress to hospital systems) and probably will not care about the type of hospital, its reputation, etc as long as they get seeing and get their prescription.
I think for those cases where there is a choice for a facility, people should research the hospital's reputation and statistics, I would ask for their JCAHO status and report card score on their accreditation (above 98%) http://www.jointcommission.org/
Did you know that staph infections acquired in hospitals are in the raise and these infections kill over 15,000 Americans every year? I rather go to a hospital where I know for sure has addressed seriously the staph infection statistics than getting a friendly staff. But most hospitals with JCAHO scores of 98% or above have also high scores in patient satisfaction, including friendly, caring medical staff, nursing, etc.
Check also "magnet status" of the hospital, here is a link where you can learn more about this: http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/faq/magnet.html#suggestions.html
And there is another site, The American Hospital Association but you have to be a Hospital to be a member, but here it is just in case: http://www.aha.org/
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Dear ABrammer, I am not one that has been in hospitals as a patient, but one that has worked in many facilities over the years.
I am sorry to read about your health problems which force you to be in and out of these facilities. You did mention "chronic" conditions and usually hospitals are not the place for chronic conditions unless a complication occurs from a chronic condition. Most hospitals are designed to receive "acute" and trauma type of cases or scheduled surgeries.
But going back to your question, I think that hospitals are not a place most people want to be. However from professional experience there are a few patients that earned the nickname "E.R.frequent flyers" Most of these patients have a personal need (i.e emotional, social) met by being in a hospital E.R. and may not care whether it is clean or new. Others use the E.R. as an "urgent care center" (which is causing big financial stress to hospital systems) and probably will not care about the type of hospital, its reputation, etc as long as they get seeing and get their prescription.
I think for those cases where there is a choice for a facility, people should research the hospital's reputation and statistics, I would ask for their JCAHO status and report card score on their accreditation (above 98%) http://www.jointcommission.org/
Did you know that staph infections acquired in hospitals are in the raise and these infections kill over 15,000 Americans every year? I rather go to a hospital where I know for sure has addressed seriously the staph infection statistics than getting a friendly staff. But most hospitals with JCAHO scores of 98% or above have also high scores in patient satisfaction, including friendly, caring medical staff, nursing, etc.
Check also "magnet status" of the hospital, here is a link where you can learn more about this: http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/faq/magnet.html#suggestions.html
And there is another site, The American Hospital Association but you have to be a Hospital to be a member, but here it is just in case: http://www.aha.org/
Great question!
June 3, 2009 - 10:47pmThis Comment
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