Local hospitals receive high ratings for quality care
For those looking for quality hospital care, Southeastern Idaho might be the place. According to a recent ratings report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, some local hospitals received 4-star ratings.
One of those hospitals was Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello.
According to Todd Blackington, the director of marketing of PMC, there’s a lot of good quality healthcare happening in the region and PMC is proud to be included in that list.
In the recent ratings report, the center rated more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals. Portneuf received two 4-star ratings. One was in the patient survey category and the other was in overall ratings. PMC said the ratings are important.
“It’s big because it shows a lot of the work that happens with our employees and really, to the patients,” Blackington said. “The ratings are all about the patients. It’s not really about recognizing Portneuf, but just making sure the patients have choices where they can go. And so they know that they can come here and get quality care.”
So what do the ratings mean? According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website, the ratings are all about educating the public on how healthcare providers are performing. Blackington said it’s a great informative tool to patients.
“The ratings are all about choice,” he said. “So the government wants people to know where they can go for quality care. Also, it helps to keep hospitals accountable to make sure they’re providing care that’s good because everyone’s going to know about it.”
In the patient survey category, several factors are looked at to determine a hospital’s score in that category. These factors help determine a person’s overall satisfaction with their stay.
The factors looked at are communication with staff, the responsiveness of the staff, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital, pain management, and discharge information are all evaluated.
Portneuf said it’s important they rated high in this category because it’s all about the patients and making sure they’re receiving the care they need.
“It’s humbling because when people come here, our CEO likes to say the hospital is a sacred place,” Blackington said. “So a lot of hard things happen here, a lot of great things happen here. And we don’t take that lightly and so we’re honored to be recognized.”
Other Southeastern Idaho hospitals who also received 4-star ratings were Bingham Memorial Hospital, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and Mountain View Hospital.
