Public opinion about health care at Bluewater Health is the highest its been in years, according to the hospital corporation’s latest data.
Public opinion about health care at Bluewater Health is the highest its been in years, according to the hospital corporation’s latest data.
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As of August, patient experience grades for emergency department visits topped 90 per cent, and hit more than 85 per cent for medical and surgical care, based on interim discharge phone surveys, data in a quality improvement plan update to Bluewater Health’s board shows.
The ratings — the percentages measure how many patients, clients, residents and providers rated their experience nine or 10 out of 10 — are the highest they’ve been since at least before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the update shows.
Public opinion cratered to 30 per cent or lower for both measures, it shows, in the aftermath of an October 2023 cyberattack that left hospital systems crippled and staff relying on pen and paper for patient tracking.
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Systems began to come back online around February, which is also when public opinion started to rebound, according to the report.
“We’re really happy to see that boost,” said chief nursing executive Jane Mathews.
Relief from cyberattack-related turbulence in hospital likely played a role in the public-opinion bounceback, she said.
She also credited getting things such as feedback in real time from patients on the care they’re receiving.
That’s with the help of 15 patient experience partners, who advocate for patients when hospital leadership does rounds, said Mathews, also Bluewater Health’s clinical support services vice president.
“We go to various units and really hear how the patients are perceiving their experience, and in real time are then able to mitigate any themes or concerns or potential issues,” she said, noting that work also happened before the pandemic.
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Sharing positive stories internally about patient care has also helped, as has ongoing education for hospital officials about keeping patients and families at the center of what Bluewater Health does, she said.
“It was a challenging time for our staff during the downtime” related to the cyberattack, she said.
“Lots of process changes. But having the system come back up really gave an opportunity to get back to normal ways of functioning, and we do see that in our patient experience results.”
Bluewater Health has had quality improvement plans since around 2011, with two per cent of executive pay tied to achieving targets, as per provincial requirements.
How long people wait in emergency before they’re admitted as inpatients, another aspect that’s tracked in the current plan, continues to be above the target of 14.5 hours nine times out of 10, the latest data shows.
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Between April and August it was 16 hours, with a 23.8-hour peak in August, it shows.
Bluewater Health has been operating around 100 per cent capacity and seeing a surge in patients showing up for emergency care.
“We’re still challenged for bed occupancy,” Mathews said Friday, adding hopes are a new health information system that started being used in early November will help speed up how quickly patients can be discharged to other health-care supports in the community.
“But we really are challenged with the volumes coming in and the acuity of the patients,” she said.
HAS plan for equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism training for staff, meanwhile—another plan aspect—has been stalled at 20 per cent because of the cyberattack, she said.
A 25-per-cent target initially was set for last March—it was set in April 2023—but was extended a year amid the impacts of the cyberattack, she said.
“Due to the downtime and the implementation of our new health information system, we paused education just due to resources,” she said.
The final improvement plan measures tracks how often mental health and addictions patients return to hospital for care within 30 days, but data hasn’t been updated since before the cyberattack.
The target is 14.7 per cent, and it was 24.6 per cent between March and June 2023, the report says.
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