January 20, 2001
Citizens express satisfaction with local healthcare, survey shows.
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - A recent survey by Kittitas Valley Community Hospital (KVCH) shows most residents give local healthcare services a positive rating. The survey included questions about the quality of healthcare services provided at KVCH, perceptions about access to physicians in Ellensburg and use of specialists.
Among all survey respondents, KVCH was mentioned most frequently as the preference for both routine outpatient and inpatient care (62 percent for each). Overall, the hospital rates highest for its Family Birthing Center, staff’s level of concern and compassion, and its surgery services.
Administrator Eric Jensen said KVCH he is pleased with the results. “KVCH has made significant gains in public perceptions on virtually every comparable item that was tested, when compared to a similar survey that we did in 1996.”
“We are succeeding in our goal of providing quality healthcare services locally. I am particularly proud that our staff receives such a high rating for their concern and compassion toward patients and their families. Once the construction and renovation project is completed we should be in an even better position in terms of outpatient, surgery and emergency services,” Jensen said.
KVCH was the most frequent destination for most of the outpatient services covered in the survey. The largest percentages of respondents had used KVCH for mammography, CT scan, or MRI. The results suggest that KVCH compares favorably to other providers in terms of satisfaction for most outpatient services.
In the area of primary care, 82 percent of respondents residing in Hospital District 1 use a physician located in Ellensburg. Of those surveyed, 83 percent said the wait times were acceptable to see a physician for non-urgent care. As for urgent wait times, 86 percent of respondents found their practitioner’s urgent wait times to be acceptable.
Of those surveyed, 31 percent said they had used an emergency or urgent care service in the past 12 months. In Hospital District 1, 84 percent of respondents said they went to KVCH.
The community survey was conducted in December 2000 and included randomly selected telephone interviews with 444 households in Kittitas County. Sixty-two percent of the respondents were female and 58 percent of the respondents live in Ellensburg.