SAN DIEGO, Nov. 10, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In conjunction with Mercy Gilbert Medical Center (Mercy Gilbert), Skylight Healthcare Systems(r), the leading provider of interactive patient care systems, announced today a series of patient satisfaction and safety benchmarks to support the medical center's mission of delivering compassionate, high-quality, affordable health services. Expanding its service offerings as Mercy Gilbert continues to grow, Skylight has been integrated into four medical units that support a large scope of medical services, including the Orthopaedics/Neurosurgery Department, the Intensive Care Unit, the Lund Family Pediatric and Adolescent Unit, and the Telemetry Unit.
The Skylight system provides patients with customized health information, education and interactive services -- all at the bedside. Skylight ACCESS has demonstrated improved patient satisfaction and outcomes while enhancing the entire patient care continuum for health care professionals, patients, and their families.
Patient safety and patient education is a top priority for all hospitals. Mercy Gilbert has taken the added steps of promoting these crucial information resources to their patient's right at the outset of their stay. It's this commitment to safety that has lead to being nationally recognized as a quality leader and being fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation and Healthcare Organizations. "To support our mission, all CHW facilities are committed to excellent care and the total patient experience," commented Laurie Eberst, president and CEO of Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. "Working together with Skylight, we've created an environment that helps patients feel safe and comfortable, one that reminds staff why they chose healthcare as their profession, and one that not only creates a healing facility but also a healing culture."
Throughout the main hospital and the new tower, Mercy Gilbert has launched a service excellence initiative and has added service requests for Housekeeping, Room Temperature, Room Comfort and Spiritual Care. This service alert program allows the patient's request to go directly to the responsible department while freeing nurses to spend more time delivering care at the patient's bedside. And automatic notifications alert hospital administrators to patient satisfaction with those service requests, providing the opportunity for service recovery prior to discharge. With Skylight ACCESS, staff members from any department can close the service request and indicate that the request has been completed. As a result, management can see by department, by floor, and by individual room if their service goals are being met -- in real time.
By responding quickly and effectively to patient requests, Mercy Gilbert saw a dramatic increase in patient satisfaction scores. In order to measure patient satisfaction and to fully understand the real concerns of their patients, Mercy Gilbert began pushing various interactive surveys to their patients after admittance. "These survey results provide invaluable information as to how we can improve the patient experience and how we can better exceed expectations through teamwork and collaboration," commented Grace Ibe, Director of Service Excellence at Mercy Gilbert. "By virtue of better understanding what patients want, we were able to respond by putting processes and systems in place to better serve and care for our diverse patient base."
In order to enhance the healing environment and the comfort of the Lund Family Pediatric and Adolescent Unit, Mercy Gilbert leveraged Skylight's customizable user interface to deliver uniquely focused content, activities, and health education that speaks specifically to children and their families. The unit itself is brightly colored and distinctively decorated, and the Skylight experience has influenced best practices in children's facilities throughout America. According to Deanna Grey, director of the Lund Family Pediatric and Adolescent Unit, "We worked very hard to build programming that helps our youngest patients really enjoy the system with learning adventures, games, and other relevant content that kids really relate to. The Skylight system helps us to better connect with our patients and families and it's an excellent way to encourage greater patient utilization of the Skylight ACCESS System, thereby significantly improving staff efficiency while providing a smoother recovery and discharge plan."
By utilizing Skylight ACCESS, Mercy Gilbert has increased the time clinicians spend providing direct patient care and improved the effectiveness of patient education efforts. Combining Mercy Gilbert's commitment to healing and compassionate care with the latest in-room technology will empower patients to partner in their own care and encourage positive collaboration between patients and caregivers.
"We share Mercy Gilbert's passion and commitment to serving the healthcare needs of the Gilbert community and to do so with dignity and respect," commented David Schofield, Skylight president and CEO. "We are honored to have been selected by Mercy Gilbert Medical Center to work together with their community of healthcare professionals to achieve shared by goals by providing critical tools for patient care, satisfaction, and safety."
About Mercy Gilbert Medical Center
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is located at the intersection of Val Vista Drive and Loop 202 (south of Pecos Road and east of Val Vista Drive). Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is a four-story, full-service acute-care facility with 182 beds. For more information, please visit www.mercygilbert.org or call 480.728.8000. Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). For employment opportunities please contact the Human Resources Department at 480.728.8396. For information on physician referrals or community classes and support groups, please contact the ResourceLink toll-free at 1.877.728.5414 or resourcelink@chw.edu.
About Skylight Health Systems
Skylight(r) Healthcare Systems is the industry pioneer and leader in interactive patient care technology. With patient communication as the cornerstone of a safe, comfortable and clinically optimal hospital experience, the Skylight ACCESS(r) Interactive Patient System encourages patient and family to actively participate in their health care, improves communication between staff and patient/family members, and can provide a smoother and faster recovery and discharge plan. Skylight's vision is to provide hospitals with a robust tool which will allow them to greatly enhance interactive communication along the entire patient care continuum. In nearly 15,000 installed locations, leading hospital administrators have confidently selected Skylight Healthcare Systems as the proven choice for their interactive patient care technology. Skylight Healthcare Systems is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information about Skylight Healthcare Systems, please visit: www.skylight.com.
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