Goal:

Advanced Home Care exists to provide compassionate, high quality, innovative health care to people in their homes. Patient satisfaction is very important to us, and is assessed through the use of an independent vendor of health care satisfaction measurement. Questions are listed on the survey and patients respond to the questions by answering: very poor, poor, fair, good or very good to a series of service related questions. The Top Box score includes only the good and very good responses.  Our goal is a Top Box score of at least 93%.

Process:

Every month patient satisfaction surveys are mailed to our customers. We conduct a straight random sampling of customers employing a mail-out mail-back methodology. Patients send the completed surveys, using a self addressed stamped envelope that has been provided, directly to the vendor for scoring of the surveys. The surveys are then forwarded to Advanced Home Care. All surveys are reviewed for comments and those with comments are copied and distributed to the management involved. Concerns are addressed either individually with the customer, the employee, or the process in place. The majority of comments are complimentary and in those cases employees are praised for a job well done.

Other goals we measure ourselves against on an ongoing basis include:

• The patient is contacted within 24 hours of referral to Advanced Home Care. This involves at least a telephone call, if not a first visit from Advanced Home Care staff.
• The Home Care Coordinator visits every patient referred to Advanced Home Care prior to discharge from the hospital.
• Home Medical Equipment (HME) is delivered within 2 or 4 hours, based on the type of equipment, from receipt of referral.
• Respiratory assessments are completed within 4 business days of referral.
• There is a response within 30 minutes from receipt of referral to the hospital Home Medical Equipment Liaison.
• New Infusion deliveries/starts are provided prior to dose time.
• The telephone is answered within 3 rings.