5-Star Hospital

By: Boone County Health Center

Many people have heard of 5-star hotels. Now Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) offers a way to identify 5-star hospitals as well with a national, standardized, publicly reported survey.

The survey is called the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). It asks patients who have been in the hospital 27 questions related to communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital, discharge information and pain management among other questions.

The results of the survey are listed as a star rating with a scale from one to five stars. Five stars is an excellent rating. Four stars is above average. Three stars is average. Two stars is below average, and one star is poor.

In 2019, Boone County Health Center has been given a 5-stars rating. This is an improvement from four stars in 2018.

“Our patients often tell us our hospital takes such good care of them it’s like staying in a 5-star hotel. Now we’ve got an official 5-star rating to prove it,” said Vice President of Corporate Compliance and Risk Management Jeanne Temme, RN.

In 2018, Boone County Health Center scored five stars in many categories such as communication with doctors and nurses and overall rating of the hospital. This year, they also have five stars in categories related to communication about medicines, discharge information and care transition. This led to the overall higher 5-star HCAHPS Summary Star Rating.

“We are proud of this improvement, because it reflects that we are listening to our patients’ feedback as we offer better and better health care,” said Temme.

“We have an interdisciplinary team that meets three times a week to begin discharge planning as soon as a patient is admitted. This team includes clinic-based Nurse Navigators, Case Managers, Social Work, Registered Nurses, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Pharmacy, Dieticians and VP of Patient Services. The collaboration is just wonderful,” said Temme. “Our Ward Secretary also faxes the discharge medication list to our patients’ pharmacy so they can compare what they have on file with any changes made when a patient is preparing to leave the hospital.”

“Our Pharmacists now consistently go into the patient room to provide education. Based on our suggestions, our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, Cerner, has also made improvements to their program. Now the discharge medication list prints from our system in a way that is much easier to understand, and nurses can add extra instructions and when the next dose is due. This has helped with both communication about medicine and also discharge information. Our clinic-based Nurse Navigators now also come in on weekly patient rounds to help with care transition as patients leave the hospital,” said Temme.

Boone County Health Center scored higher than the national average in every single category in 2019.