SHELBYVILLE, IN – Patients of Major Hospital gave the regional healthcare facility top marks for inpatient satisfaction, according to data collected and analyzed by Press Ganey, a national healthcare consulting firm.

“We were very pleased to see that Major Hospital ranked No. 1 in comparison to selected similar-sized hospitals in the region and in the top 2% nationally,” said Jack Horner, president and CEO of Major Hospital.

Analyzing information collected from patients from November 2008 through January 2009, Press Ganey found that Major Hospital ranked No. 1 (99 percentile) for inpatient satisfaction compared to a custom peer group of 11 hospitals in Indiana, and ranked in the top 2% of more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. The national consulting firm provided Major Hospital executives with the results from its database report in late February.

“Press Ganey is a highly respected independent healthcare consulting firm, and their report eloquently confirms the success of the continuous improvement commitment by Major Hospital’s physicians, nurses and professional staff,” said Horner. “While healthcare facilities must contend with numerous challenges in reimbursement and regulatory issues, hospitals must never lose sight of delivering high quality service and outcomes for patients,” the Major Hospital CEO continued.

“The goal of Major Hospital is nothing less than to be the best in the region for personalized healthcare delivery, and the Press Ganey results demonstrate that we are advancing toward that goal,” Horner emphasized.

The hospital, which serves as the healthcare anchor for 28 different specialty practice groups in Major Health Partners (including oncology and orthopedics), strategically renewed its long-term focus on high standards of healthcare in January 2008, according to Linda Wessic, vice president of nursing for Major Hospital.

“With senior executives and physicians leading the way, we took our already high standards of service delivery and ratcheted them up,” Wessic explained. “A group led by Dr. Doug Carter, Hospitalist Program Director, including, staff representatives and medical professionals met twice a month to intensively review any and all opportunities for improvement,” Horner added.

Part of the commitment was to add additional dedicated hospitalists – medical professionals who ensure high-quality service during a hospital stay – to Major Hospital’s in-house medical team. Major Hospital today positively transcends regional trends with the presence of five board-certified physicians in internal medicine or family practice to serve as full-time hospitalists.

“These hospitalist physicians work directly with referring physicians and specialists to ensure that Major Hospital patients receive personalized service and the highest quality of care contributing to positive outcomes,” said Gust Spenos, a board-certified neurologist who serves as Major Hospital’s chief of medical staff. “They contribute directly to the high standards of personalized care that defines what we call ‘the Major difference’ for our southeast Indiana operations.” While the hospitalists play a key role in achieving patient satisfaction, the entire hospital staff must collaborate together as an extended team to achieve true patient satisfaction. “In achieving real success, the Major Hospital staff had to work together at all levels – from the physicians and nurses attending patients to the IT professionals to the pharmacists to the maintenance personnel keeping everything running – everyone had to be engaged in improvement and they are,” Horner explained.

The recent research results documented by Press Ganey adds to a long list of notable recognition for excellence received by Major Hospital. Among other achievements, the hospital has been recognized three times recently as one of America’s “100 most wired hospitals” by Hospitals and Health Networks. Major Hospital achieved this recognition and a later designation as one of “the top 25 wired rural and small hospitals” for its early adoption and implementation of a comprehensive medical information technology system. Such systems improve patient safety and outcomes by standardizing information exchange and Major Hospital was one of the first healthcare facilities in the Midwest to deploy such state-of-the-art technology. Major Hospital also has achieved peer recognition as an early adopter of telemedicine applications in secure high-resolution image transmission and the fiber-based broadband linkage of all hospital-related physician practice groups.

“We owe it to the people of Shelby County and southeast Indiana to be the best that we can be, and the Press Ganey independent research shows that we are hitting the target,” Horner concluded.

About Major Hospital
Major Hospital is the primary healthcare provider for Shelby County (Indiana) and serves patients and families throughout southeast Indiana through the hospital and its vertical practice groups in Major Health Partners. Founded in 1924, Major Hospital has served as regional leader in successfully delivering a wide spectrum of healthcare services, including oncology and orthopaedics. As documented by the national independent Press Ganey ranking service, Major Hospital currently enjoys a top ranking for inpatient satisfaction in central Indiana. It has also secured a national reputation as one the nation’s leading hospitals in health informatics. For more information, please visit Major Hospital.