Survey says hospital doing a better job with sick

| 20/04/2012

hospital entrance.jpg(CNS): The results of a recent survey of people using the services and facilities of the Health Services Authority including the Cayman Islands Hospital shows people believe things are going well with 78 per cent rating the HSA facilities as Excellent or Good. However, those surveyed said that the accident and emergency needed some improvement as 17% said they had a poor experience at A&E. The research, called the Cayman Health Facilities Usage and Attitudes survey, was carried out by Tower Marketing and was commissioned by the Health Services Authority to gauge public opinion on the its facilities and performance since a similar survey was carried out in 2010.

This latest research, which was conducted between 16 and 23 September 2011 with 500 respondents called at random, found that while inpatient satisfaction was on the rise, from a 30 percent Excellent rating in 2010 to 44 percent in 2011, 66 percent of respondents rated the HSA outpatient facilities as Excellent or Good, a drop compared to 77 percent in 2010.

Lizzette Yearwood, Chief Executive Officer of the HSA said that the annual survey underscored the importance the HSA places on achieving a high level of patient satisfaction and that the survey provided an important reference point for the Authority and its future planning focus.

“While the survey shows that the level of confidence in the HSA remains relatively constant at 80 percent, those patients who have used the HSA over the past 12 months are 3 percent more confident that they will receive good service than those who have not, which I think is an important statistic,” she said. “It shows that patients who use the HSA realize that we do provide an extremely good level of service and it also shows that we still have some work to do to ensure that the general public has a more positive perception of our facilities and services.”

The survey also found that respondents highlighted the need to provide more or faster assistance at A&E as the most important way to improve the service at the Cayman Islands Hospital. While a total of 17 percent of respondents rated their A&E experience as Excellent, 17 percent rated their experience as Poor. This was in comparison to the General Practice experience, which received an 18 percent Excellent rating and a Poor rating of just 7 percent.

“A&E is the primary entry point for many patients (41 percent), which is why improvements here have the potential to affect the experience of the greatest number of patients,” Yearwood said  “We recognize that there are areas of service which need our particular focus for improvement and the survey has helped to pinpoint these areas.   We are now looking at a variety of ways to reduce waiting times at A&E, one example that is being investigated is the establishment of an urgent care clinic.”

Yearwood said she was encouraging to see 72 percent of respondents strongly agreed with the statement that the public had a responsibility to support and use the HSA services properly.  69 percent also agreed that HSA staff and physicians treated patients in a courteous and friendly manner respecting the patient’s individual culture and beliefs.  The survey found that  while 37 percent of the respondents strongly agreed that they should not have to pay for services at the HSA, 31 percent strongly disagreed with this statement and 12 percent somewhat disagreed.

One of the HSA’s strategic objectives is to achieve a rating of satisfactory or better by 90 percent of the population by 2015.

“Our hard-working staff all go to tremendous lengths to provide the highest quality of healthcare in the Cayman Islands. We believe that this research will help us all to identify how to achieve our goals most efficiently and it will assist us in tracking our progress towards it,” Yearwood added.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Better than what exactly??

     

  2. Anonymous says:

    Are you joking? What are you talking about? I have my own 'horrible' experiences to share should someone call me.  Last time I was in a hospital, I witnessed as staff "mistakenly" IVd too much potassium into an old woman's veins, who sufferred immensly. People are sent to Miami to get diagnoses. Local Doctors with all the modern and expensive equipment they have  can't diagnose anyone beyond simple cold and stomach flu. I have not heard of a SINGLE "satisfactory" experience in GTH ( excluding maternity ). No training will inprove anyone if they have no compassion for people. Sadly, medical professionals became arrogant, self-important category of people. I do not know a single doctor on this island whom I would trust my life in case of an emergency. Unless you are rich and famous, you are treated as a nuisance.

    • Anonymous says:

      I must profoundly disagree. As the parent of a child who was born with a rare congential birth defect and had to be air-ambulanced for surgery on three separate occasions in addition to having some separate 15 hospital stays, I have nothing but praise for the paediatricians and paediatric nurses at the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town.  The child was accurately diagnosed and comprehensively prepped so that when the air ambulance arrived there was little to do. The airambulance crew were really impressed. The doctor fought with our insurance company on our behalf so that coverage for the airambulanced was obtained when they were reluctant to confirm coverage. The care and consideration of the nurses for us and our child was first rate. I am very grateful to them.    

  3. Anonymous says:

    As a regular visitor I observe many many things negative and positive. So I hope that my comments will only be taken as a constructive criticism. The good first, the maternity ward is well run with some of the best staff you could ask for. The person in charge should be commended for it. Then the surgical ward most of the time is well staffed as well, just of recent there is some decline. The Pharmacy staff is also on the ball but wherever the idea came from about not refilling perscriptions on saturdays should be abolished. We do not have to adopt rules from our neighbours where the health care system stinks. Now we have some Doctors who are always on the RUN and cannot stop to talk to some patients. We remember vividly when they first arrived how much time and respect they had for us. Getting too big now a day for the job?  One request that the public has for our hospital and that is that we make Dr Teeling and Dr Nelson be in charge of the hospital. Two very dedicated  and knowledgeable Doctors. Two areas that need alot of brushing up on is the medical ward with a shuffle of staff at night and the emmergency. Alot of the time alittle orginizing would relieve the long unecessary wait. Then when you do get in the noise is like Caronation market. When you are so sick the noise is unbearable.  Alot of time patients leave because of the frustration and long wait.Just need to have some good person dealing with the most sick and seeing to it that they get a bed. Last but not least we would like to see the hospital staffed with more professional from not just two countries. Again we want to thank Ms Lizette who we know are trying her best and hope that our advice and comments will be taken. Remember we the public have more knowledge about what goes on at the hospital. If we cant have Dr nelson and Dr Teeling run our Hospital then one of our very very best our most brilliant Dr Robertson and Cubana Dr Williams. That Clinic too we forgot to mention is well run with our very kind Salomie who are always trying to help everyone. Hope my comments will make an improvement.

    • Anonymous says:

      You got it right, for some reason Doctors assumed that THEY have to decide who they talk to. But I AM the one paying for his/her "service". 

    • Anonymous says:

      Hope we will soon see a our hospital staffed with less of one Nationality. The saying goes, sister brings Papa, Papa brings Mama, Mama brings Grany, Granny brings Papa, and the list goes on and on. Please lets rename the Emmergency Department. It is referred to by the Public as the Market Place. There are certain regular Patients that have terminal  illnesses that should be a priority on arrival and given a bed immediately. Also children with a high temperature etc etc. Then when you do get inside my GOD the chatting about every thing except the  patient.  Have you ever tried asking for tings such as a                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

  4. Annonnymous says:

    They did not call me!  I have some horror stories for them!!

     

  5. Anonymous says:

    I know de cant be talking bout Brac!

    • Anonymous says:

      Faith Hospital is a nightmare.  Those nurses are so miserable.  I rather go to the private doctor any day.  They also change around their appointments a lot.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Imagine how much better our health care would improve if we implemented a training program for newly-qualified doctors the way other jurisdictions have?  This would encourage more people to become doctors since they could actually practise when they were done with their training.  We would also improve the quality and reduce the costs for the ones we have.

    • Anonymous says:

      If you invest in keeping healthy people healthy you save a huge amount of money.

       

      Good diet and exercise must be aggressively be promoted together with a vilification of smoking.

       

      Healthy people do not need hospitals but, for the health care industry, there is no profit in healthy people.