Compass Award Points to High Client Satisfaction at Mercy Home Care

Cadillac, MI - Mercy Home Care has been honored with the 2005 Compass Award from Press Ganey, a national provider of health care satisfaction and improvement tools.

December 16, 2005

Cadillac, MI - Mercy Home Care has been honored with the 2005 Compass Award from Press Ganey, a national provider of health care satisfaction and improvement tools.

Press Ganey is recognizing Mercy Home Care, a member of Trinity Home Health Services (THHS), for outstanding performance improvement in the Home Health Care category. Specifically, the agency increased its mean score by an impressive 5.55 points over a two-year period.

"This award acknowledges organizations that demonstrate a commitment to using patient satisfaction data to improve the quality of health care," said Mel Hall, PhD, President and CEO of Press Ganey.

Jan Bersted, Executive Director, said she's extremely pleased with the award, but even more so with the fact that it represents the opinions of our clients.

"For me, that's one of the finest compliments to be paid, to have the patients say they are happy with the care they receive," Bersted said.

Peg Berkhousen, Director of Homecare Clinical Services for THHS, added, "The staff of Mercy Home Care, Cadillac have worked hard to provide good customer service. The staff is passionate about the neighborhoods they serve; they see their clients as neighbors. They deserve this award."

Bersted added, "We have changed processes and restructured some positions to better use staff talents and abilities. Having the right people in the right jobs led to a ‘can do' attitude." In addition, the agency reenergized its staff recognition program by encouraging associates to recognize one another for going above and beyond in their work effort.

The Compass Awards recognize improvement in patient satisfaction scores over the course of two years. Award winners are determined by calculating the average of each client's overall mean scores across their standard reports for the last two years. The scores considered for the 2005 Compass Award were based upon reports between August 2003 and July 2004 for year one and reports between August 2004 and July 2005 for year two. Clients are than rank ordered based upon the amount of improvement they have shown between the two years. The top three improvers are selected as Compass Award winners.

About Mercy Home Care

Mercy Home Care delivers a wide variety of home health services including skilled nursing services, social work services, speech, occupational and physical therapies. A member of Trinity Home Health Services (THHS), Mercy Home Care in Grayling and Cadillac serve residents in Wexford, Missaukee, Osceola Lake, western Manistee County, northern Mecosta, and Clare counties. THHS is a member of Trinity Health, the fourth-largest Catholic health system in the United States.