departments within four business days and to clearly 
communicate the resolution to the patient within 
seven business days.

 A patient relations and grievance team was 

developed to be the decisive entity for complaints 
that cannot be resolved by the department manager. 
This team meets on a weekly basis to review these 
complaints and grievances and bring them to a 
resolution and communicate the decision with 
patients.

 This new process has improved communication 

between patients and the hospital. An emphasis has 
also been placed on recurring themes of complaints 
to focus on improving operational processes and 
procedures as necessary to adjust to both employee 
and patient needs to improve satisfaction.

• 

How our customers perceive the care they 
experience at GSHCS is important to us. We monitor 
our customer’s experience through the Centers for 
Medicare and Medicaid Services survey Hospital 
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers 
and Systems or HCAHPS. This survey measures 
nine domains or focus areas which include; 

Communication with Doctors, Communication 
with Nurses, Responsiveness of Hospital Staff, 
Communication about Medicines, Communication 
about Pain, Discharge Information, Cleanliness of 
Hospital Environment, Quietness of the Hospital 
Environment, and Transitions of Care. These domains 
are accentuated by two additional questions – 
“Would Recommend” and “Overall” rating. From 
Q3 2017 to Q2 2018 “Would Recommend” has 
improved significantly from the ninth percentile to 51 
percentile. Likewise, “Overall” rating improved from 
three percentile to 42 percentile which, in turn, is 
reflective in our upward trends in every domain on 
the survey. This increase in our scores is also reflected 
in the 39 awards we received at the 2018 Healthcare 
Service Excellence Conference we participated in San 
Antonio, Texas in February.

• 

We contributed to the success of the Eastern Oregon 
Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO) ensuring 
that recipient members of the Oregon Health Plan 
living in Eastern Oregon have access to affordable, 
high-quality care. We participated and assisted 
EOCCO in achieving 13.7 out of 17 quality metrics. 

Family Birth Center nurses and staff pose for a 
picture with their Cribs for Kids certification. They 
became a certified “Safe Sleep Leader” for their 
commitment and dedication to best practices and 
education on infant safe sleep.

Chiropractor Dr. Christopher K. Scott (right) pauses from 
shooting his video series, “Brace Yourself”, for a picture 
with the Marketing, and Quality Departments who hosted 
medical students from Wester University of Health Sciences 
for a week to learn about healthcare operations.