Knoxville Hospital & Clinics is committed to you and committed to continually improving patient satisfaction. For over 10 years, KHC has partnered with Press Ganey Associates, the hospital industry’s leading independent vendor of patient satisfaction, to measure and improve patient services. With the assistance of Press Ganey, KHC gathers patient satisfaction data from Inpatients, Outpatients, Emergency Department patients, Ambulatory Surgery patients, and Medical Practice patients. The staff at KHC constantly seeks feedback from patients and their families in order to improve the overall patient experience.

Two areas that have seen significant increases in scores recently are the Emergency Department and Ambulatory Surgery. The Emergency Department has increased their scores by eight points bringing their mean score to 86 and ranking in the 97th percentile of American Hospital Association hospitals in Region 6. In Ambulatory Surgery, the staff reached their goal of the 95th percentile of American Hospital Association hospitals in Region 6. To achieve this, they concentrated their attention on three areas: helpfulness of phone personnel, degree pain was controlled, and response to concerns/complaints. In an eight month period the scores for the three different areas have improved by more than five points, putting them in the 95th percentile.

In the Emergency Department at KHC, the staff has been focusing on customer service to raise their scores. For the doctors and nurses in the Emergency Department, it is all about their patients. The first priority is the excellent care and treatment that is provided to them. Next they focus on the emotional support which is given by keeping patients and their families informed of any delays they may encounter during their stay in the ER. They also share education about the ER process and what can be expected while they are in the ER. It is important for the patients to know who is caring for them during their ER stay, so the doctors and nurses introduce themselves and also utilize the white boards where staff and physician’s names are printed.

“The ER is often a place of crisis, urgency, pain, and scared people and while they are here time can tend to stand still or drag for them. If we can keep the patients and families updated as to what is occurring, it can sometimes help relieve stress and improve understanding that we do care about them,” said Melody Abell, Emergency Department Coordinator. “We want to live up to our patients and families expectations and so we want to know that they are comfortable, that their needs are met, and that their pain is controlled.”

For the Ambulatory Surgery staff, to achieve their goal of reaching the 95th percentile they focused on selecting an employee, Jennifer Padellford, who would serve as their Press Ganey champion. As the champion, at staff meetings Padellford presents the focus questions, solution starters to their focus questions, and any patient comments that are received. The staff has also tried to make sure to ask the patients if they could do anything else for them before hanging up the phone or leaving an area.

“We at KHC truly care about what our patients think. We are committed to providing our community with the highest levels of clinical and personal service,” said Ann Helwig, CEO at Knoxville Hospital & Clinics. “We listen to our patients, and our staff is truly dedicated to making improvements based upon the feedback we receive.”

Imagine a world where no one volunteered. Think of what would happen if nobody bothered to help others in need, if there were no voluntary doctors or nurses, no one willing to help supply food, water, or supplies. Volunteering has become a part of life for Knoxville Hospital & Clinics employee, Amy Zoutte, and her husband, Alan.

On February 3, Alan and Amy left the comforts of home to travel to Pignon, Haiti, where they will be working in an eye clinic for the next 10 days. This is the sixth trip for Amy and the fourth for Alan. Together they travel with a group from the Meredith Drive Reform Church in Johnston called Vision Mission Team.

Pignon is a town located about 80 miles north of Port-au-Prince, the location of the recent horrific earthquake. People of Pignon felt the quake and things fell off their walls, but no injuries or structural damage has been reported. According to Amy, 800 refugees have already moved into the area and they are trying to treat as many as possible at the eye clinic.

“Normally we do an eye clinic and hand out glasses and glaucoma medicine. I also work in surgery where we do cataract and eye surgeries,” said Amy. “This time we are preparing to do a lot of eye trauma and unfortunately probably some eye removals.”

This volunteer trip will be much different than previous times for the Zouttes because of the recent disaster. Still that didn’t stop them from wanting to make their trip.

“We really don’t know what to expect, but in Haiti you learn to go with the flow because you cannot change it. We are taking our own food to help the clinic not have to provide it so they have it available for the refugees. We also are not staying in our normal dormitory because it is full of orthopedic surgeons who are there treating trauma patients from the earthquake,” said Amy. “I truly feel that I am called by God to do this mission work. I am so blessed to be born an America, to have plenty of food, a home, and a supportive place to work. It is only ten days out of my life a year and it helps so many people to be able to see.”

“We are very proud of Alan and Amy and we hold them in our prayers as they travel to minister to the Haitian people. We at KHC have so much, and yet we yearn for more. Our friends in Haiti have so little, yet they have treasures that exceed our grasp. They have so much to teach us, and we have so much to learn,” said Ann Helwig, CEO at Knoxville Hospital & Clinics.