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Emergency Team Gets Honors |
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December 5 2002 Visitors to hospital emergency rooms are often subjected to long delays as those with more serious injuries are treated first. This often leads to frustration, stress not to mention hours of sitting and waiting for care. But for one LI hospital, patient satisfaction became as important a goal as medical care. Those efforts have paid off for Stony Brook University Hospital as its Emergency Department was recently named a "workforce champion," b NYS. "We are very pleased with this important recognition from New York State," said Bruce Schroffel, Director and CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital. "Since the Emergency Department treats more than 60,000 patients each year and serves as a gateway to the hospital, it is vital that patients are satisfied with our services. This award validates our efforts and mission to meet and respond to community needs." The hospital formed Continuous Quality Improvement Committees to identify and overcome perceived challenges to the best possible care. Through re-structuring procedures and policies, the group was able to improve processes related to admitting, registration and triage, the laboratory and radiology. "We sought opportunities to enhance the quality of care and improve patient satisfaction. We streamlined the processes and interactions between the health professionals on behalf of the patients, and their responses in patient satisfaction surveys showed dramatic approval of the changes," Schroffel continued. In the state's announcement of the award to Stony Brook, George Madison, Director of the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, which made the award, said that the Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction Team "is a true example of the innovative and outstanding accomplishments by select members of the State's workforce." The hospital had to submit a detailed application for the award. Some of the qualifying accomplishments which the hospital met in its efforts included implementing functional changes in how staff work together to improve results, designing new processes and systems that advanced its mission to provide better service to the public, replacing outdated work methods with more efficient approaches, enhancing workforce planning and management efforts, developing new and creative methods to foster a more productive work climate, and improving employee morale and job satisfaction. Further criteria included the use of innovative partnerships, self-directed teams, labor-management committees, and other collaborative arrangements to improve emergency treatments, increase workforce contributions and commitment by developing proactive approaches that address employee needs.
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