Patient Satisfaction, HCAHPS Scores Bolstered by 'Sacred Moment'

Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett, MO, has been owned by four for-profit hospital companies over the past decades, including the current owners, Health Management Associates, Inc.

In that time, Medical Director Steve Pu, MD, a general surgeon at the 116-bed hospital, has seen various patient engagement initiatives launched with the best of intentions only to flounder months later.

"Every company that came in had some type of program that they wanted to initiate that would help with patient satisfaction. All of the programs were good. The principles they were founded on encouraged you do to all the right things, the rounding and the discharge goals," Pu says.

"I found over the years that you would initially gain a lot of momentum with these particular initiatives, and your (HCAHP) scores would go up. But usually after six to eight months things would start to decline.

The end result at Twin Rivers had been discouraging HCAHP patient engagement scores in the mid-30s as recently as one year ago.