Improving behavioral health satisfaction assessment: measuring patients' perceptions.

In order to focus on and improve key aspects of patient satisfaction in its behavioral health programs, Catholic Health East (CHE) enhanced its measurement methodology. In an effort to be consistent with the federal government's movement from measuring patient advocacy programs to measuring patients' perceptions, CHE transitioned to behavior-based questions. These questions give clear targets for program goals and initiatives by objectively measuring whether certain events and desired staff behaviors occurred during treatment, rather than subjectively ranking attributes of institution-defined service.

A real-time medical event reporting and prevention system in long-term care.

This article describes a knowledge-transfer process developed by Catholic Health East (CHE), headquartered in Newtown Square, PA, and focuses on improving resident safety in the skilled nursing or long-term care setting. How the health system customized and implemented an electronic medical event database to identify opportunities for improvement to prevent future occurrences of adverse events is outlined. The database customization and subsequent discussion of results is conducted under the auspices of CHE's quality and patient safety department in collaboration with 18 of CHE's long-term care facilities.