What Physician Ownership Means to the Patient
By Kendra Sikes, Heritage Park Surgical Hospital, Texoma LIVING WELL Magazine
When choosing the facility you have surgery in, options can become daunting. Do you understand the differences in facilities to make the most educated decision? One of the main differences of facilities in Texoma is Heritage Park Surgical Hospital, a physician-owned hospital. There are many advantages to physician ownership: cutting-edge technology, specialty surgery teams and faster care with better service.
A physician-owned hospital is one that has any physician with any type of ownership. Physician-owned hospitals are typically known for top-notch healthcare. Physician-owned hospitals credit their high patient satisfaction rates due to freedom from administrative layers between patients and doctors. Recent studies in the economics and health literatures have found evidence of improvements in patient outcomes in physician-owned hospitals relative to comparison hospitals.
There are approximately 255 physician-owned hospitals in 37 states across the country. According to analyses done in different states, the quality of care is high in physician-owned hospitals, ranking number one in 19 of the states. Most physician-owned hospitals are specialty facilities, focusing on specific types of surgeries to provide the best, most advanced care for those surgeries.
Cutting-edge healthcare comes first, and wellness follows. Physician-owned hospitals have advantages that are passed directly on to what’s important––you, the patient. Heritage Park Surgical Hospital believes in staying up to date with the latest technological advances in medicine. An example of this is the Medtronic ENT Navigation System that lets Heritage Park ENT doctors see where their tools are while doing surgery in your sinus cavities, essential to steering clear of going too deep and into brain tissue. This technology was added to the hospital because a doctor spent the time to research the best practice in his field and wanted to offer the advanced technology to Texoma. This is just one example of how Heritage Park physicians seek out the newest technology and the nurses are trained with that in mind. The nursing staff undergoes training in-services on average twice a month to stay current and well educated.
Another advantage to being a physician owned hospital is the ability for surgeons to hand-pick the team they work with. Heritage Park Surgical Hospital believes in hiring the best. They believe that in becoming the top employer of Texoma, they can actively recruit the best. Therefore, as a patient, you have the best care possible when having surgery and your family has the best care possible while you are having surgery. Heritage Park staff members are given not only the training they need through in-services, but also receive on-the-job training through cross-training in the different specialties Heritage Park Surgical Hospital offers. This allows them to gain understanding of the different specialties, while staff with extensive training in that particular specialty is still in the operating room, assisting the surgeon.
By being a physician-owned hospital, the physicians are able to get their patients in sooner and have a more efficient surgical procedure itself. Therefore, getting you in and out, back in the comforts of your own home faster, letting you recover faster and more comfortably. Efficiency is highly important in making sure the physicians are on task so the patient can start and finish the surgery on schedule.
Heritage Park Surgical Hospital is owned by 40 physicians in the Sherman/Denison area. The hospital opened in November 2010. Since then, the focus has been on the patients. Our patients don’t just get better, they get better everything. This is evident in the recent awarding of Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award to Heritage Park Surgical Hospital. The hospital is in the top 5% of hospitals nationwide. Healthgrades uses data from the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) surveys from CMS to analyze each hospital’s average patient experience. According to Healthgrades analysis, the areas that had the highest relationship to receiving a positive recommendation score have a common thread––the personal touch (including nurse communication, receiving discharge instructions, pain control and receiving help quickly).
This award proves that Heritage Park Surgical Hospital patients know they are getting better healthcare, receiving higher than average personal interactions with staff and feeling as though they are truly getting that personal touch. As a recipient of the Outstanding Patient Experience Award, Heritage Park Surgical Hospital affirms that our patients don’t just get better, they get better everything!
Kendra Sikes is the manager of physician services at Heritage Park Surgical Hospital in Sherman, TX. To learn more about their services visit HeritageParkSurgicalHospital.com.
