Explanation of Measures
Oxygenation Assessment: Having enough oxygen in your blood is important to your health.
Pneumococcal Vaccination: A pneumonia (pneumococcal) shot can help prevent pneumonia in the future, even for patients who have been hospitalized for pneumonia.
Blood Culture Performed Before First Antibiotic Received: A blood culture tells what kind of medicine will work best to treat your pneumonia.
Adult Smoking Cessation: Smoking is linked to pneumonia. Quitting may help prevent you from getting pneumonia again.
Initial Antibiotics within 6 hours after arrival: Timely use of antibiotics can improve the treatment of pneumonia caused by bacteria.
Immunocompetent Patients: Antibiotics are medicines that treat infection, and each one is different. Hospitals should choose the antibiotics that best treat the infection type for each pneumonia patient.
Antibiotic received at the right time: Getting an antibiotic within one hour before surgery reduces the risk of wound infections. This measure shows how often hospital staff make sure surgery patients get antibiotics at the right time.
The right antibiotic is selected to help prevent infection: Some antibiotics work better than others to prevent wound infections for certain types of surgery. This measure shows how often hospital staff make sure patients get the right kind of preventive antibiotic medication for their surgery.
The antibiotic was discontinued at the right time: Taking preventive antibiotics for more than 24 hours after routine surgery is usually not necessary. This measure shows how often hospitals stopped giving antibiotics to surgery patients when they were no longer needed to prevent surgical infection.
Surgical site infections: The percentage of patients with clean surgical wounds who acquired a surgical site wound infection.
Hair removed with a safe method: For those patients who needed to have hair removed to prepare for surgery, this measure tells how often one of the safer methods was used (electric clippers or hair removal cream). Use of a razor to remove hair can leave small skin wounds, which can become susceptible to infection.
Correct treatment to prevent blood clots chosen: Blood clots can cause many health problems, and prior to surgery, patients should be assessed for the need for treatment.
Correct treatment to prevent blood clots administered at the correct time: Depending on each patient’s medical needs, the correct treatment (if any is chosen by a physician) to prevent blood clots should be administered within 24 hours prior to surgery to 24 hours after surgery.
Aspirin upon arrival: Aspirin can help keep blood clots from forming and dissolve blood clots that can cause heart attacks.
Aspirin at discharge: Taking aspirin may help prevent further heart attacks.
ACE Inhibitors or ARBs: ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors and ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers) are emdicines used to treat heart attacks, heart failure, or a decreased function of the heart.
Smoking cessation counseling: Smoking is linked to heart attacks. Quitting may help prevent another heart attack.
Beta Blocker at discharge: Beta blockers are a type of medicine used to lower blood pressure, treat chest pain (angina) and heart failure, and to help prevent a heart attack.
Nurses communicated well with patients: Patients reported how often their nurses communicated well with them during their hospital stay. “Communicated well” means nurses explained things clearly, listened carefully to the patient, and treated the patient with courtesy and respect.
Doctors communicated well with patients: Patients reported how often their doctors communicated well with them during their hospital stay. “Communicated well” means doctors explained things clearly, listened carefully to the patient, and treated the patient with courtesy and respect.
Patients received help quickly from hospital staff: Patients reported how often they were helped quickly when they used the call button or needed help in getting to the bathroom or using a bedpan.
Patients’ pain was well controlled: If patients needed medicine for pain during their hospital stay, the survey asked how often their pain was well controlled. “Well controlled” means their pain was well controlled and that the hospital staff did everything they could to help patients with their pain.
Staff explained about medicines before administering to patients: If patients were given medicine that they had not taken before, the survey asked how often staff explained about the medicine. “Explained” means that hospital staff told what the medicine was for and what side effects it might have before they gave it to the patient.
Patients’ rooms and bathrooms were kept clean: Patients reported how often their hospital room and bathroom were kept clean.
Rooms were kept quiet at night: Patients reported how often the area around their room was quiet at night.
Patients were given information about what to do during their recovery at home: The survey asked patients about information they were given when they were ready to leave the hospital. Patients reported whether hospital staff had discussed the help they would need at home. Patients also reported whether they were given written information about symptoms or health problems to watch for during their recovery.
Overall rating of TRH: After answering all other questions on the survey, patients answered a separate question that asked for an overall rating of the hospital. Ratings were on a scale from 0 to 10, where “0” means “worst” and “10” means “best” hospital possible. The percentage reported here tells the percent of patients who gave their hospital a rating of 9 or 10.
Would patients recommend TRH to friends or family? The survey asked patients whether they would recommend the hospital to their friends or family. The score tells the percent of patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital. The remaining percent of patients either reported NO, they would not recommend the hospital, or MAYBE would recommend.
