British Columbians who have been admitted as inpatients have given high ratings to overall hospital services in the Province’s first ever acute care inpatient experience survey, Health Minister George Abbott announced today.

Almost 92 per cent of survey respondents rated the quality of their overall care as good, very good or excellent. Inpatients are people who have been admitted to an acute care hospital, typically for at least one overnight stay.

“These results show we are clearly on track in providing quality patient care,” Abbott said. “It gives us great confidence in British Columbia’s ability to provide a high level of sustainable and accessible patient care when the vast majority of inpatients are satisfied with the overall care they received. The outcomes are a credit to the dedicated front-line health-care professionals who work in acute care hospitals.”

The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and health authorities and conducted by NRC (National Research Corporation) Canada, was done between Sept. 30, 2005 and April 15, 2006. Surveys were sent to medical, surgical, maternity or pediatric inpatients and examined their experiences across eight care dimensions. It included additional questions on maternity and pediatric care. A total of 23,185 inpatients responded to the survey, which was mailed to a total of 47,460 people.

Among individual questions receiving the highest ratings were:
• Timeliness of response after pushing a call button 96.3%
• Lack of injury to patient or a visitor from error 95.6%
• Courtesy of physicians 95.3%
• Overall quality of patient care 91.8%

“The B.C. government committed to undertaking patient experience surveys in 2003 because we felt there was a gap between what we were hearing publicly about the health-care system and what patients were telling us about the care they received,” Abbott said. “Health authorities will use the
results to ensure continuous improvement in areas where inpatients tell us we can do better.”

Areas for improvements included greater discussion of when to resume normal activities, as
well as giving patients more say about their treatment. Some patients said they wanted more discussion
with nurses around their fears and anxieties.

The Province will spend $1 million annually between 2004 and 2009 to monitor patient experiences on a recurring basis in key areas. The findings will be used as a baseline to measure progress on ensuring British Columbians continue to receive high quality care.

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Media
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Marisa Adair
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For St. Paul' s Hospital results, click here.

For Mount Saint Joseph Hospital resuts, click here.