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u 8 stouffville suntribune thursday jan 29 2004 by usa queen staff writer patients have ranked york regions three hospitals as average in an annual provincial report card while the news comes as some thing of a disappointment to southlake regional health centre and markham stouffville which both slipped from exceptional patient satisfaction ratings last year york central hospital is embracing its score thats because the richmond hill hospital has found itself at the bottom of the pack since the province launched the report cards five years ago were glad weve reversed the trend said new president bruce harber who took over last month its a good start its a turning point but i think everybody thinks we can go much higher cheryl avrich director of plan ning and quality and risk credited much of the turnaround to new nursing procedures i think weve worked very hard on improving our nursing struc ture the nursing leadership struc ture im hoping that has helped provide nurses with more sup ports she said we had been relying much more on agency nursing staff with that you dont have the continuity of care were working very hard to jim maclean the reality is the demand from a growing population is great markham stouffville hospital president said reduce agency staff we reduced it by 66 per cent last year interestingly although patient satisfaction ratings for all three hospitals are considered within the provincial average range there was a fairly wide range of marks york centrals score is 788 to 851 by comparison markham stouffville received 887 to 909 and southlakes score is 91 to 933 for the first time this year hos pitals received numbered marks rather than a star rating markham stouffville tradition ally captured five stars on patient satisfaction southlake was in the middle of the pack until last year when it managed to score five stars president dan carriere could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon year to year results unfair markham stouffville president dr jim maclean suggested it may be unfair to track a hospitals results from year to year i dont think you can compare last years report to this report because they are using a different methodology and in some cases different indicators he said because the report card uses data collected a year to two years ago dr maclean said hospitals cant blame poor showings on last years sars crisis which threw yorks hospitals into upheaval meanwhile he argued a track record ofaverage to aboveaverage patient satisfaction ratings during yorks ballooning population growth is something to be proud of its a challenge in a high- growth area when the pressures are so great on your organization to continue to achieve above-aver- s at hospitals age results he said adding the report card is only one indicator the hospital relies on to gauge patient satisfaction its a real challenge were going to keep trying our best to meet our customers needs but the reality is the demand from a growing popu lation is great we believe our care is high quality were continuing to look at areas of improvement adapting new technologies and procedures to maintain high quality dr maclean said satisfaction ratings reflect patients percep tions of hospital communications and the rapport between patients and staff we rarely run into issues where patients are dissatisfied with our quality its mostly cus tomer service stuff he said we believe our care is high quality were continuing to look at areas of improvement adapting new technologies and procedures to maintain high quality in a breakdown of the patient satisfaction scores this year both markham stouffville and southlake were ranked as average in all eight areas such as overall quality outcomes of care physi cian care care by other caregivers and housekeeping york central was average in five of the eight categories but ranked below average in three areas what patients thought overall of the care and services they received what they thought of the care in their ward and the care they received from nonphysician care givers hospitals were also rated on a number of medical services such as heart attack patients access to angiography tests readmissions for illnesses such as asthma hys terectomies and prostatectomies and the number of days stroke vic tims remained in hospital all three york hospitals are con sidered above average on access to coronary angiography tests southlake and markham stouffville performed above the provincial average on the percent age of patients who had gall blad ders removed in day surgery both york central and southlake ranked above average for length of stay for hysterectomy patients southlake also is considered above average on the length of stay for stroke patients a i- v wibsi y- 1 ssssii touffville denture clini full partial dentures same day relines soft liners custom fitted sports guards repairs while you wait implant dentures bps dentures all insurance plans welcome free no obligation consultation to answer your questions and concerns appointments also available in ajax for your convenience 905 6248 main st stouffville michael c deegan dd