Advocate Hope Children's Hospital, part of the Advocate Christ Medical Center and Hope Children's Hospital campus in Oak Lawn, Ill. has been selected the August winner of the Studer Group® Fire Starter of the Month Award for "remarkable, sustained outcomes."  The national award recognizes the hospital's "hard work and dedication to achieving clinical, service and operational excellence."

Studer Group is an outcomes-based health care consulting company devoted to teaching evidence-based tools and processes that organizations nationwide can use to create and sustain outcomes in service and operational excellence. 

"Firestarter is an appropriate title for this award because the physicians, nurses, technicians and other staff at this hospital are literally 'on fire' in their commitment to our patients," said Karen Clark, executive director of Hope Children's Hospital.  "The partnership forged between our nurses and physicians has resulted in outstanding quality care and service for the children and families whom we serve."

This focus on providing quality, compassionate health care to the hospital's patients and their families and the hospital's concern for serving surrounding communities are reflected in the hospital's high patient and associate satisfaction rates.  In the fall of 2008, satisfaction among nurses and other staff at the hospital jumped to the 96th percentile, and has remained at that level following completion of another satisfaction survey in the spring of this year. 

Meanwhile, satisfaction among pediatric medical staff registered at the 93rd percentile on the basis of a Press Ganey survey that was administered in the late summer/early fall of 2008 and then analyzed in comparison with results obtained from
other hospital physician surveys nationwide.  Physician satisfaction was measured at the 99th percentile at Hope Children's Hospital when compared to a customized list of major children's hospitals in the United States.

Press Ganey Associates, Inc. is an independent, national health care measurement and rating agency that assists hospitals in continuously improving performance; conducts these satisfaction surveys of hospital staff, physicians, patients and families; and determines percentiles in comparison with other hospitals.

High physician and associate satisfaction usually translates into high customer satisfaction, and that axiom has held true for Hope Children's Hospital where, during much of 2009, the overall satisfaction of surveyed patients and families has reached into the upper portion of the 90th percentile range.  Families' satisfaction with nursing care has been at the 99th percentile, and satisfaction with pediatricians and pediatric specialists has topped the 90th percentile.  These numbers are based on benchmark comparisons with other major children's hospitals throughout the country.

Also contributing to the high customer satisfaction scores at Hope Children's Hospital have been:

• Hope Children's Hospital's Magnet status.  Magnet designation, which is awarded by the Credentialing Center of the American Nurses Association, serves as a prestigious, professional distinction of outstanding quality and excellence in patient care and nursing services. 
• Consistent application of Studer Group methods, such as hourly rounding on inpatients and family members and achievement of high rates of completed follow-up phone calls to parents after their children have been discharged from the hospital.
• Restructuring of hospital meal menus to make them more child-friendly
• Renovation of, and expanded hours and food selections for, the children's hospital cafeteria
• Patient and family rounding by hospital mechanics to ensure that room equipment, such as televisions, are in proper working order.