Tomah Health has been named a five-star hospital because of patients’ ratings that measure their experiences of care. Tomah Health Risk, Compliance and Patient Experience Director Shelly Egstad, MASL, RN, said the rating reflects the work by hospital staff for their continued dedication of truly caring for patients and focusing on what matters to patients. “It takes every single staff member, physician and provider to achieve this,” said Egstad.
The five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for patient experiences is a result of recently discharged patients who were asked about several topics, including how well nurses and doctors communicated, how responsive hospital staff were to patient needs, the cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment. “Patient experience is an important part of quality care and our hospital staff continued to shine when providing care to our patients,” Egstad said. She added that it is always rewarding to be recognized by those who receive the care.
CMS requires hospitals to survey patients, which Egstad said is completed randomly by a third-party company. “We use a third party to conduct the survey and the surveys go to them and they send the information to CMS,” explained Egstad. “We just can’t pick the ones that we think might answer the survey well.”
She encouraged patients that receive a survey to complete it and return it to the hospital. “We do use that feedback and every comment is sent to our Administration and they review every comment. We take this seriously and I do think that’s one of the reasons why we achieved five stars.” Tomah Health last received a five-star rating in 2022.
CMS surveys quality of care at over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals, including over 130 Veterans Administration (VA) medical centers and over 50 military hospitals, across the country.
Information on hospitals across the country can be found HERE