At Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, delivering the highest quality of healthcare with the latest technology is not enough. We’re not satisfied unless you’re also satisfied. We’re committed to providing you with a good experience and putting policies into place to ensure interactions with your care provider are professional, helpful, courteous, and respectful.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health has been recognized by national organizations for the quality of our patient experience.
In both 2019 and 2020, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health received the Guardian of Excellence Award for Patient Experience from Press Ganey.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health has also received the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ for the eighth consecutive year, placing the medical center among the top 5 percent of hospitals nationwide for patient experience.
To help us provide the exceptional care for which we’re known, we solicit patient satisfaction surveys and post the results online. All ratings and comments are submitted by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health patients and verified by an independent, national patient survey company, Press Ganey Associates, Inc. Patient comments are displayed in their entirety and anonymously to protect your confidentiality and privacy. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health receives feedback from more than 20,000 patients each year.
Both positive and negative comments are posted, with these exceptions:
Offensive, abusive or malicious language
Names or detailed descriptions of diagnoses, procedures or complications that jeopardize patient confidentiality or privacy
Comments about other providers, departments or instances of care
To provide our patients and visitors with the most accurate and useful information, we post ratings and comments only for providers in Virginia Mason Franciscan Health specialties that are included in our patient survey process and when a provider has received a minimum of 30 returned surveys for a 12-month period.
By offering public access to provider ratings and comments, you gain additional insight into what other patient interactions have been like. That information can help you make more informed decisions when choosing a health care provider.
Internally, the feedback allows us to make changes in policies, procedures and communication techniques to ensure we’re providing the best possible experience for you and your family.
Comments can’t be posted directly to a provider's online profile. Comments are taken from the section of our patient satisfaction survey asking patients about their experience with their care provider. As long as the comments don’t include any of the exclusion criteria noted previously, they're posted on the provider's profile about three weeks from when they’re received.
The information will be posted as long as a minimum of 30 returned surveys have been received. The Patient Relations team will work with providers who request coaching or help on how to improve their patients' experiences.
Requiring a minimum of 30 returned survey responses helps ensure statistical validity. When a provider has 30 or more returned surveys, ratings are less likely to fluctuate based on surveys with extreme responses—positive or negative.