Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/857677
T hink of it as the Michelin ranking for hospitals. Just as hotels and restaurants are awarded with stars for delivering on promises— these days so are hospitals. e Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey asks patients to rate their experiences at key medical centers. e Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures the results of the government-mandated survey and each quarter gives the hospitals stars based on those results. Torrance Memorial Medical Center has earned a four-star rating— one of only four in Los Angeles County—placing it in the top 5% of hospitals in the area. And while no hospital in the county earned five stars this quarter, that may be Torrance Memorial's next goal. "Believe me, when we received notice we were going to get this rating, I got very excited," says Mary Matson, who as director of service excellence coordinates Torrance Memorial's patient experience improvement efforts. "A four-star rating has been an organizational goal set by our Board of Trustees. We have moved up from a three to a four, which is not easy to do. Our goal was to reach four stars by the end of 2017. So we not only reached our goal, we also did it early." AN EXCELLENT PATIENT EXPERIENCE PUTS TORRANCE MEMORIAL IN THE TOP FOUR OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY FOUR STARS FOR TORRANCE MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER "THEY ALSO ARE ASKED TO RATE THEIR OVERALL EXPERIENCE, AND TORRANCE MEMORIAL SCORES VERY, VERY HIGH IN THAT CATEGORY."