Advancing Health Podcast
MaineGeneral | Augusta, Maine: MaineGeneral Knows Safety Is a Key Element of High-Quality Health Care
Patient Safety Member Story
MaineGeneral Knows Safety Is a Key Element of High-Quality Health Care
MaineGeneral is a non-profit hospital system serving the Pine Tree State’s Kennebec Valley region. The system cares for patients from 88 cities and towns, offering a wide range of services throughout central Maine, including 24/7 emergency services, outpatient cancer care, long-term care, specialized rehabilitation, and community outreach programs.
Adhering to a philosophy that safety is a key element of high-quality health care, MaineGeneral has developed and implemented several programs dedicated to cultivating safe care environments. MaineGeneral’s innovative and effective programs that focus on patient satisfaction and infection prevention have helped make the system’s services some of the safest in the state, receiving accolades from patients and others.
Patient Experience Reports
MaineGeneral has implemented a system-wide initiative to collect and publish patient reviews, known as Patient Experience Reports. These reports consist of aggregated survey responses submitted by MaineGeneral patients in response to a set of questions. The standardized survey asks respondents to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the extent to which they agree with certain statements. Question topics include provider knowledge of the patient and their needs, ease of accessing information, and medication discussions between patients and providers. Many of these questions relate to patient safety and enable MaineGeneral to capture the unique insights of patients on their work to make care safer.
MaineGeneral aggregates the responses to these questions and makes them publicly available on its website. A Patient Experience Report graphically illustrates the percentage of respondents who answered 9 or 10 (the highest scores) to each question and is available for every primary and specialty care practice within the MaineGeneral system. This detailed, transparent approach to quality reporting underlies an across-the-board commitment to providing safe and high-quality care to all patients.
For example, key takeaways from their Patient Experience Report from Primary Care Practices include:
- An average of 93.6% of respondents said providers listened to them carefully.
- An average of 94.1% said their provider explained things well.
- An average of 92.2% of respondents said providers involved them in decisions about their care plans and health goals.
With an average of over 80% of survey takers rating 8 out of 10 questions a 9 or 10, MaineGeneral maintains exceptionally high patient satisfaction with their hospital practices. Thanks to MaineGeneral’s transparent approach to collecting and publishing patient satisfaction data, prospective patients can be confident that they will receive safe, high-quality care throughout MaineGeneral’s locations and services.
Commitment to Safety
MaineGeneral supports a variety of other programs to support, improve, and maintain a high level of patient safety across the system. Some of these innovative programs include:
- Infection Prevention: MaineGeneral is committed to going above and beyond to prevent infection across its system. In addition to following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for identifying and reporting infections, MaineGeneral has voluntarily implemented additional infection control practices.
- Partnering with our Patients Hand Hygiene Campaign: MaineGeneral is pioneering a collaboration between patients and providers to ensure hospital safety. In conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania and Steris, the Partnering with our Patients Hand Hygiene Campaign seeks to get patients actively involved in the hospital safety process by encouraging them to ask their providers if they’ve washed their hands – one of the simplest but most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs.
- National Recognition: MaineGeneral’s patient safety efforts have resulted in several awards, including a 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
