I bought Fruit Stripe gum the other day.  Oh, I thought it would take me back to my childhood memories of fruity goodness and a special treat.  It did for about 7 seconds – then it was like chewing wax.  I must have had no attention span whatsoever as a child.  So as a child, did we all — and do our kids now — go for instant gratification and then move on?  As a society we’ve allowed way too much short term gain and long term emptiness.  (Example: books that take days to read squashed into 90 minute movies).    If we can’t instantaneously achieve pleasure or success (every diet I’ve been on for the past 2 years) then forget it – we’ll move on to something else.

At 1:30 the other morning I remembered that I left my hose on full blast.  … 6 hours.  Yes, I’m seriously losing my mind.   It’s all because I am trying to juggle too much and, as always in the end, nothing is done well.   I’m going to research nursing home insurance.

Thanks, everyone, for coming to the party Saturday night.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  (I really hope you tried the ribs because they were out of this world!!  If Skeeters opens a restaurant in town – the average weight of Clarion-ites will double.)  Well into the evening, a big praying mantis jumped on the back of my leg which caused me to freak a little bit.   The rum punch helped to reduce my anxiety a bit.  Speaking of bugs, the caterpillars that were on my Italian Parsley – which is the best use for the dreadful stuff … to house caterpillars - well, someone went and ate them all.  Where is the humanity???  (I’m hoping it was a bird.)

We received notification last week from the Studer Group that we are the recipient of an Excellence in Patient Care Award.  "Congratulations! Wright Medical Center has been selected as a recipient of Studer Group’s new Excellence in Patient Care Award! Award recipients were selected based on excellent performance in various HCAHPS domains. It is not surprising that you are being recognized for high scores in the Overall Rating of Hospital category. Congratulations on keeping the Healthcare Flywheel turning at Wright!"

What is HCAHPS you ask?  I thought you'd never ask!  Below is a little background information and then I've attached a link you may click on to see how WMC compares with two other facillities in our area.  

The intent of the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems) initiative is to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perspectives on hospital care. While many hospitals have collected information on patient satisfaction, prior to HCAHPS there was no national standard for collecting or publicly reporting patients' perspectives of care information that would enable valid comparisons to be made across all hospitals. In order to make "apples to apples" comparisons to support consumer choice, it was necessary to introduce a standard measurement approach: the HCAHPS survey, which is also known as the CAHPS® Hospital Survey, or Hospital CAHPS. HCAHPS is a core set of questions that can be combined with a broader, customized set of hospital-specific items. HCAHPS survey items complement the data hospitals currently collect to support improvements in internal customer services and quality related activities. 

The HCAHPS survey contains 18 patient perspectives on care and patient rating items that encompass eight key topics: communication with doctors, communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information, cleanliness of the hospital environment, and quietness of the hospital environment. The survey also includes four screener questions and five demographic items, which are used for adjusting the mix of patients across hospitals and for analytical purposes. The survey is 27 questions in length.

www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov

We are Consistently Exceeding Your Expectations!  We welcome your comments.

Congratulations!  It's a brand new website!  Date of arrival:  June 22, 2010.  We are pleased to offer you this latest addition to our current repitoire of services.  We are confident that our new website will consistently exceed your expectations and solidify the fact that we are always striving to bring you the latest technology and keep our award-winning faciltiy in the forefront of your mind!  

Please feel free to send any comments or questions regarding the new site.  We are excited to bring it to you and want you to feel comfortable using it.  Keep checking back...more great things to come!