Starke Hospital officials are recognizing some of the hospital’s accomplishments when it comes to specific areas of patient care. Hospital CEO Craig Felty says they continuously measure a variety of patient safety and quality of care indicators. This information is then reported to the federal government, but the hospital also uses it to make sure it’s offering the best care possible.
One area in which Starke Hospital has been particularly successful, according to Felty, is preventing patient falls. “We began regularly tracking this, actually, back in 2010, and since then, we are proud to say that we have not had an inpatient fall with a major injury in our hospital in 2,057 days, so that’s more than five-and-a-half years,” he says. “That’s not saying we haven’t had some falls because we do, and actually, we do very well with preventing falls, period, at Starke. But this is a huge testament to the caring and diligent staff at the hospital. Everybody does their best to make sure that our patients are safe.”
He says another place in which the hospital excels is providing medical care quickly, “A lot of our quality measures that we do these days are based on times, time of arrival from the emergency department to when they see the doctor, total time in the emergency department, time of arrival to certain treatments for certain different diseases. And we’re also doing very well in reducing the readmission rate of the patient. So what this means to you as a patient when you come to Starke Hospital, you’re more likely to be cared for in a timely manner, and you’re less likely to be readmitted to our hospital within 30 days of being discharged.” Felty says one of the ways they help keep patients from returning to the hospital is by making sure each one understands how to use their medications before being discharged.
He says all the staff’s efforts lead to greater patient satisfaction, “It’s always been my personal motto that if your employees are happy, they’re going to make your patients happy, and if your employees are content, patients will be content. And we know that our colleagues love what they do, and I think you can tell just by walking into the hospital and just the overall aura that you get when you come into the hospital is one of happiness and positivity.”
Felty adds that having the opportunity to take care of people they care about outside of the hospital environment makes the job even more rewarding for hospital staff.
