Hospital patients on the North Olympic Peninsula are more upset about not being able to sleep at night than any other aspect of their stays, according to a Washington State Hospital Association survey.

Released last week, the results for Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles and Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend for overnight hospital stays in 2009 were consistent with the statewide average that shows that a little more than half — 51 percent — of all hospital patients in Washington state are satisfied hospitals are “quiet at night.”

OMC’s score on that aspect was 47 percent, while Jefferson Healthcare’s was 51 percent.

It was easily the lowest score among several categories covering how satisfied patients were with their overnight hospital experiences statewide and on the North Olympic Peninsula.

There were no results for Forks Community Hospital, which is still compiling data for patient satisfaction, Chief Financial Officer John Sherrett said last week.

Patient satisfaction was one part of a two-part survey conducted by the Washington State Hospital Association. Surveys were voluntary. The state association provided percentages but no numbers of patients who completed the survey.

The second part deals with infections acquired in hospitals between July 2009 and June of this year.

OMC, which has 126 beds, recorded two infections, and Jefferson Healthcare, a 42-bed hospital, had none.

Overall patient satisfaction scores were 63 percent for OMC and 71 percent for Jefferson Healthcare.

The overall statewide patient satisfaction rate was 66 percent.

The patient satisfaction data are required by federal government from larger hospitals such as Olympic Medical Center but not critical-access hospitals such as those in Port Townsend and Forks, state Hospital Association spokeswoman Cassi Sauer said Friday.

Hospital infections

The survey of the rate of hospital-related infections — data required by state law — covered pneumonia infection rates from ventilators; from central, or intravenous, lines into main arteries or veins; from orthopedic surgery including hip- and knee-joint replacements; and from hysterectomies — all of which apply to the Port Angeles and Port Townsend hospitals.

Infections from cardiac surgery also are included in the statewide survey, but that surgery is not performed at any North Olympic Peninsula hospital.

Forks Community Hospital, a 45-bed facility, does not perform any procedures that apply to the infection rate data, according to the survey.

The goal of every hospital in the state is zero infections, even if just one infection in a category is listed in the survey, Sauer said.

“It is useful,” she said of the infection survey.

“They can compare themselves with other like-sized facilities and see if they are having more or fewer infections than their peers and see if there are things they need to do differently,” she said.

“If you see some hospital with even a single infection and you see another hospital with zero, it might be good to consult with that hospital and ask, ‘What are you doing that we are not doing?'”

Recommend hospital?

The patient satisfaction categories included the percentage that would recommend the hospital to friends and family.

The statewide average for all hospitals was 71 percent, compared with a national average of 69 percent.

While 71 percent of Jefferson Healthcare patients recommended that hospital, 70 percent of OMC patients recommended Olympic Medical Center.

The highest percentage of patient recommendations in Washington went to Pullman Regional Hospital in Whitman County, which was recommended by 91 percent of patients.

The recommendation rate for Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton was 72 percent, and for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, 71 percent.

The full survey results, including the patient satisfaction questionnaire, are at www.wahospitalquality.org.

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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily news.com.