Patients score state's hospitals

The University of Washington Medical Center earns better marks from its patients than any other hospital in King County, although patients ding it for being too noisy at night.

Surveys indicate patients at Auburn Regional Medical Center, on the other hand, are far less satisfied: Only half of its discharged patients would recommend the hospital to family and friends, and they gave its staff especially low scores for sluggish responses to call buttons.

The patient evaluations were made public Tuesday by the Washington State Hospital Association, the latest addition to its online tool allowing patients to rank state community hospitals on quality and pricing.

The ratings were based on surveys of patients admitted to hospitals between October 2006 and June 2007. The results, which come from new, uniform questionnaires required by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, have been publicly available since March 28. The Washington State Hospital Association repackaged the data to make them easier to use.

Patients can sort hospitals by scores in cleanliness and noisiness as well as the communication and courtesy of doctors and nurses. They can also compare each hospital's score against national and state averages.

In the new data, hospital performances varied widely. The state's top-rated hospital, Pullman Regional Hospital, scored 82 percent on overall satisfaction. Auburn's overall score was 45 percent, the lowest among the 45 hospitals evaluated. An additional 42 member hospitals — including two Group Health Cooperative hospitals — were not rated, either because those hospitals did not have the data or lacked enough responses.

The hospital association's Web site already features several other quality comparisons, including average costs for common treatments, infection-handling and how well each hospital treats patients with heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.

The site's usefulness is somewhat limited because it doesn't include information about elective surgeries for which patients could select a hospital ahead of time. For example, if a prospective patient wanted to compare how quickly knee-replacement patients start walking after surgery at various hospitals, that information is unavailable.

The online tools "are reasonably comprehensive, but they do not give you a full picture," said Cassie Sauer, a spokeswoman for the hospital association, which represents 97 community hospitals in the state.

Lorie Wild, chief nursing officer for UW Medical, said she was pleased with her hospital's performance. UW Medical had an overall score of 71 percent.

"These are good scores, but they show that we have room to grow," Wild said.

Wild said UW Medical already is tackling some of those weaker areas, including reducing noise near patient rooms, and anticipating patients' need to use the bathroom or repositioning patients to cut down on the need to summon a nurse.

Calls for comment to Auburn Regional Medical Center were not returned.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com