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January 12, 2010 — High Tech and High Touch Care

Can large academic medical centers provide the personalized and compassionate care valued by patients and their families?

This is the question posed in a recent op-ed by Douglas Brown of UMass Memorial Health Care. He notes that Clinton Hospital, the smallest hospital of the UMass Memorial Health Care system, outperforms UMass Memorial Medical Center, the academic medical center that serves as the flagship of the system, when it comes to patient satisfaction scores. Mr. Brown notes that the Medical Center treats patients who are sicker and require more complex care than Clinton and then asks why teaching hospitals aren't satisfying patients as well as Clinton.

Complex care typically requires larger teams of medical professionals – specialists, sub-specialists, various therapists, nurses, etc. Patient rooms are often crowded with equipment. Nonetheless there are academic medical centers that do achieve high patient satisfaction ratings.

Some of them are affiliated with an international non-profit organization called Planetree. Planetree was founded by a patient who had a very bad experience at a California teaching hospital. Planetree promotes the development and implementation of innovative models of health care that focus on healing and nurturing body, mind and spirit. Planetree focuses on everything from the design of facilities to the nature of the patient-caregiver relationship.

Planetree is not the only organization promoting patient centered care. However, Planetree is among the few that explicitly addresses how the design of space and the environment impacts patient experience.

Kudos to UMass Medical Center for joining Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield and Martha's Vineyard Hospital for adopting the Planetree model.

Hopefully, UMass Medical Center will soon rival Clinton Hospital on its patient satisfaction scores!
 

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